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A  CONDITION   OF  VOLUNTARY   RECEPTIVITY 
(See  page  74) 


HANDBOOK 

OF 

SUGGESTIVE  THERAPEUTICS 

APPLIED  HYPNOTISM 

PSYCHIC  SCIENCE 


A  MANUAL  OF  PRACTICAL  PSYCHOTHERAPl|J4>E$IGNED 
ESPECIALLY  FOR  THE  GENERAL 

OF  MEDICINE  ,J<b,S«GERY 


BY 

HENRY  S.  MUNRO,  M.  D. 

OMAHA,    NEBRASKA 


THIRD  EDITION,  REVISED  AND  ENLARGED 


ST.    LOUIS 

C.  V.   MOSBY  COMPANY 
1912 


COPYRIGHT,  1911,  BY  C.  V.  MOSBY  COMPANY. 


Pretfo] 

C.  V  Mosby  Company 
St.  Louis 


' 

\\JM 


TO  THE  MEMORY   OF 

MY  MOTHER 

WHOSE  BEAUTIFUL  EXAMPLE  AND  MOST  FREQUENT 
SUGGESTION,  "  BE  SURE  YOU  ARE  RIGHT  AND  THEN 
GO  AHEAD,"  HAS  GIVEN  TO  MY  LIFE  WHATEVER 
DYNAMIC  QUALITY  CHARACTERIZES  THIS  BOOK. 


PREFACE  TO  THIRD  EDITION. 

The  exhaustion  of  two  large  editions  of  this  book  within  less  than 
two  years  after  its  appearance  attests  the  success  of  the  humble 
efforts  of  the  author  in  laying  before  the  general  practitioner 
an  account  of  the  principles  of  psychotherapy  in  such  manner 
as  to  be  of  practical  value  as  an  adjunct  to  his  therapeutic  arma- 
mentarium. 

That  psychotherapy  has  won  for  itself  the  highest  recognition  of 
its  deserved  place  in  therapeutics  is  no  longer  questioned  by  one 
who  has  kept  his  eyes  open  to  the  advances  of  modern  medical 
science.  Its  unqualified  indorsement  by  the  American  Therapeutic 
Society ;  the  establishment  of  the  Henry  Phipps  Psychiatric  Clinic 
at  Johns  Hopkins  University  under  the  efficient  direction  of  Adolph 
Meyer,  professor  of  nervous  and  mental  diseases  jn  that  institution, 
where  the  psychoanalytic  method  of  psychotherapy  will  be  intelli- 
gently employed ;  its  support  by  men  of  such  recognized  ability  as 
Freud,  Jung,  Bleuler,  Breuer,  Prince,  Janet,  Babinski,  Putnam, 
Sidis,  Dubois,  Miinsterberg,  Jones,  Brill,  Donley,  Waterman,  Taylor, 
and  others  shows  the  value  of  the  various  psychotherapeutic  methods 
in  their  numerous  applications  in  the  treatment  of  disease.  But 
some  of  these  men — of  unquestioned  professional  ability,  able  and 
scholarly — are  disposed  to  limit  its  field  to  the  department  of 
neurology  and  psychiatry,  when  its  greatest  field  of  usefulness  is 
in  the  general  practice  of  medicine — in  all  classes  of  medical  and 
surgical  practice.  A  few  of  these  men  are  disposed  to  speak  dis- 
paragingly of  many  of  the  simpler  psychotherapeutic  devices,  as- 
suming a  "holier  than  thou"  attitude  toward  the  employment  of 
psychotherapeutic  procedures  in  a  class  of  work  not  coming  within 
the  domain  of  their  own  specialty.  This  attitude  is  unworthy  of 
scientific  men,  many  of  whom  apparently  write  to  conceal  thought 
rather  than  to  impart  practical  knowledge.  In  their  zeal  for  the 
limitation  of  psychotherapeutic  principles  to  the  scope  of  their  own 
individual  specialty,  they  couch  their  declarations  in  technical 
phrases  that  are  beyond  the  grasp  of  the  general  practitioner. 

9 


10  PREFACE   TO   THIRD   EDITION. 

To  indicate  the  practical  usefulness  of  psychotherapeutic 
principles  in  their  application  to  the  work  of  the  general  practi- 
tioner is  the  object  of  this  book.  The  author  simply  states  his  ex- 
periences in  support  of  his  conviction  of  the  broad  scope  and  use- 
fulness of  psychotherapeutic  procedures,  and  endeavors  to  show 
how  their  application  is  upheld  by  the  theories  advanced  by  the 
leaders  of  the  present-day  conception  of  psychotherapeutic  prin- 
ciples, and  describes  the  technic  of  their  application. 

The  author  hails  with  delight  the  fact  that  one  of  the  greatest 
triumphs  of  neurology  is  its  successful  employment  of  measures 
aimed  to  modify  the  mental  mechanism  underlying  the  symptomatic 
manifestations  presented  in  that  class  of  nervous  diseases  designated 
as  the  psychoneuroses,  and  offers  this  little  volume  as  proof  be- 
yond contradiction  that  this  triumph  does  not  in  the  least  mitigate 
the  value  of  the  employment  of  the  same  therapeutic  principle  in 
other  departments  of  medical  practice. 

The  author  mqst  heartily  agrees  with  the  idea  expressed  by 
Adolph  Meyer :  ' '  Habit  training  is  the  backbone  of  psychotherapy ; 
suggestion  merely  a  step  to  the  end.  Action  with  flesh  and  bone  is 
the  only  safe  criterion  of  efficient  mental  activity ;  and  actions  and 
attitude  and  their  adaptation  is  the  issue  in  psychotherapy. ' '  This 
idea  is  in  perfect  accord  with  the  dynamic  psychology  which  con- 
stitutes the  basis  of  this  thesis. 

The  present  edition  of  this  book  contains  eight  entirely  new 
chapters,  which,  together  with  the  enlarged  and  rewritten  chapters 
of  the  preceding  editions,  constitute  an  embodiment  of  the  recent 
advances  in  psychotherapy,  though  still  holding  to  all  of  the  prac- 
tical technic  of  the  second  edition. 

The  newer  methods  of  employing  psychotherapeutic  procedures, 
such  as  are  connected  with  the  names  of  Freud,  Breuer,  and  Jung, 
are  succinctly  described  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  general 
practitioner,  in  so  far  as  the  author  conceives  them  to  be  of  prac- 
tical value  as  applied  to  his  work.  In  deference  to  the  methods  of 
Freud,  Breuer,  and  Jung,  the  reader  must  not  regard  the  views 
herein  expressed  as  being  more  than  a  general  statement  of  the 
fundamental  principles  upon  which  the  psychoanalytic  method  of 
psychotherapy  is  based,  and  an  explanation  of  the  more  easily 


PREFACE   TO   THIRD   EDITION.  11 

comprehended  technic  of  employing  psychoanalysis  for  the  diagnosis 
and  treatment  of  the  psychoneuroses  "by  bringing  into  conscious- 
ness the  hitherto  unconscious. ' ' 

It  has  been  particularly  gratifying  to  the  author  that  his  most 
extreme  views  pertaining  to  the  part  played  by  that  portion  of  our 
mental  lives  of  which  we  are  consciously  unaware,  as  the  result  of 
forgotten  experiences,  are  so  overwhelmingly  corroborated  by  the 
theories  of  Freud,  Jung,  Breuer,  Bleuler,  Prince,  Sidis,  Miinster- 
berg,  and  many  other  men  of  note.  The  theory  of  dormant  re- 
served subconscious  energy,  and  the  practical  methods  of  its  utiliza- 
tion in  heightening  the  resistive  powers  of  the  individual  in  his 
effort  to  combat  all  forms  of  disease,  was  taught  and  demonstrated 
by  the  author  to  physicians  as  far  back  as  1899,  and  the  corrobora- 
tion  of  this  theory  by  the  experience  of  thousands  of  American 
practitioners  has  fixed  the  place  for  psychotherapeutic  measures  in 
the  armamentarium  of  the  general  practitioner  for  all  time. 

HENRY  S.  MUNRO. 

Omaha,  Nebraska. 


PREFACE  TO  SECOND  EDITION. 

The  author  is  profoundly  grateful  to  the  medical  profession  for 
the  kindly  reception  accorded  the  first  edition  of  this  book.  The 
exhaustion  of  a  large  edition  since  its  appearance  nine  months  ago 
attests  its  popularity. 

The  practicability  and  efficacy  of  psychotherapeutic  procedures, 
as  an  adjunct  in  the  treatment  of  disease,  is  no  longer  questioned 
by  physicians  who  have  personally  tested  the  methods  herein  ad- 
vocated. 

The  present  edition  has  a  more  complete  index,  and  has  been 
brought  up  to  date  by  the  addition  of  new  material  on  those  phases 
of  the  subject  on  which  advancement  has  been  made  during  the 
past  year  in  so  far  as  such  advancement  is  deemed  of  practical 
value  to  the  general  practitioner  in  the  present  evolution  of 
psychotherapy. 

HENRY  S.  MUNRO. 
Omaha,  Nebraska. 


12 


PREFACE  TO  FIRST  EDITION. 

I  bring  to  the  consideration  of  the  medical  profession  not  merely 
the  facts  of  personal  experience  and  clinical  evidence  as  proof  of 
the  value  of  suggestive  therapeutics  in  the  general  practice  of 
medicine,  but  also  a  detailed  explanation  of  how  to  apply  sugges- 
tion efficaciously,  both  with  and  without  hypnotism,  as  a  thera- 
peutic adjunct.  I  give,  in  explanation  of  those  facts,  experience 
and  clinical  tests  as  interpreted  in  the  light  of  modern  scientific 
knowledge. 

Many  volumes  have  been  written  on  this  subject  by  neurologists, 
scientists,  and  psychotherapeutists  of  note,  but  in  most  cases  they 
lack  the  practicability  so  essential  to  its  successful  employment  by 
the  general  practitioner.  My  aim  is  to  emphasize  the  value  of  sug- 
gestive therapeutics,  in  a  field  of  work  that  comes  within  his 
domain,  which  has  not  heretofore  been  pointed  out  by  the  authors 
of  other  works  of  this  character.  The  presentation  also  embodies 
what  I  have  assimilated  and  found  practical  from  a  careful  study 
of  the  investigations  of  leading  authorities  on  this  subject.  To 
make  this  book  practical  and  easy  of  assimilation  has  been  my  con- 
stant aim.  And  here  it  may  fitly  be  pointed  out,  with  a  view  to 
forestalling  criticism,  that  this  book  is  not  intended  principally 
for  neurologists  and  psychotherapeutists,  to  whom  the  constant 
repetition  of  what  to  them  are  well-known  facts  must  inevitably 
prove  wearisome.  It  is  intended  rather  to  instill  into  the  vast 
mass  of  the  profession  to  whom  this  entire  field  is  as  yet  terra 
incognita  those  basic  principles  of  physiological  psychology  upon 
which  the  scientific  therapeutic  application  of  suggestion  in  all  its 
forms  necessarily  depends.  With  that  end  in  view,  principles  of 
all  pervading  importance  are  iterated  and  reiterated  as  often  as 
their  application  comes  under  consideration,  in  order  that  they  may 
become  so  fully  absorbed  and  assimilated  as  to  be  almost  axiomatic 
to  the  reader. 

HENRY  S.  MUNRO. 

Omaha,  Nebraska. 

13 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

INTRODUCTION 17 

CHAPTER  I. 
THE  AWAKENING  INTEREST  IN  PSYCHOTHERAPY 21 x 

CHAPTER  II. 

THE  RELATION  OF  PSYCHOTHERAPY  TO  THE  G«NEBAL  PRACTICE  OF  MEDI- 
CINE AND  SURGERY 32 

CHAPTER  III. 
THE  SCIENTIFIC  BASIS  OF  PSYCHOTHERAPY 44 

CHAPTER  IV. 
THE  GENERAL  UTILITY  OF  SUGGESTION 57 

CHAPTER  V. 
HYPNOTISM  DEMONSTRATED 69 

CHAPTER  VI. 
PRACTICAL  THEORETICAL  CONSIDERATIONS 87 

CHAPTER  VII. 
FURTHER  CONSIDERATION  OF  THE  PRINCIPLES,  PROBLEMS,  AND  FIELD  OF 

PSYCHOTHERAPY 112 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE   PSYCHOTHEBAPEUTIC   VALUE   OF   SUGGESTION 130 

CHAPTER  IX. 
YPNOTISM   THERAPEUTICALLY  APPLIED 162 

CHAPTER  X. 
RATIONAL  THERAPEUTICS  IN  EVERY-DAY  PRACTICE 207 

CHAPTER  XL 
SOME  OTHER  PRACTICAL  POINTS 221 

CHAPTER  XII. 

SUGGESTION  AS  AN  ADJUNCT  IN  THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  ANESTHETICS     .  228 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

PSYCHOTHERAPY  IN  RELATION  TO  THE  EXPECTANT  MOTHER 243 

15 


16  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

PAGE 

THE  PSYCHOLOGIC  FACTOR  IN  OBSTETRICS 247 

CHAPTER  XV. 
THE  GUIDANCE  OF  THE  SEXUAL  INSTINCT 255 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
PSYCHOANALYSIS  IN  THE  TREATMENT  OF  THE  PSYCHONEUROSES       .      .     .  287 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
TRAINING  THE  SUBCONSCIOUS  SELF 318 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 
CORRECT  DIAGNOSIS  A  SAFEGUARD  AGAINST  BLUNDERS 326 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
PHILOSOPHY  AND  RELIGION  —  THEIR  RELATION  TO  HEALTH       ....  332 

CHAPTER  XX. 
CONSERVATION  OF  ENERGY 340 

CHAPTER  XXI. 
ROUGHING  IT  AS  A  MEANS  OF  HEALTH 347 

CHAPTER  XXII. 
PERSONALITY  AS  A  FACTOR  IN  THERAPEUTICS 352 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 
THE  ABUSE  OF  PERSONALITY 359 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 
ENVIRONMENT  —  ITS  INFLUENCE  IN  THERAPEUTICS 364 

CHAPTER  XXV. 
THE  BRUTALITY  OF  FRANKNESS 368 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 
PEUTIC  POWER 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 


MORAL  STAMINA  —  A  THERAPEUTIC  POWER      .     .     .  3-- 


SUGOESTION    IN    EDUCATION 

"**••-.      Oo 1 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 
SELF-MASTERY  AS  A  FINE  ART 


.      .      .    388 


INTRODUCTION. 

It  would  be  superfluous  here  to  do  more  than  briefly  allude  to 
the  conditions  under  which  this  book  was  written.  The  problems 
of  psychotherapy  are  forcing  themselves  so  strongly  upon  the  at- 
tention of  the  medical  profession  that  I  do  not  think  that  any 
experience  that  may  throw  light  upon  them  should  be  withheld. 
In  1893,  while  a  general  practitioner  of  medicine,  I  became  im- 
pressed with  the  great  importance  of  properly  directing  the  psychic 
factor  in  therapeutics,  and  for  several  years  groped  in  the  dark  in 
search  of  ideas,  with  such  aids  as  could  be  gained  from  the  older 
writers  on  hypnotism  and  allied  subjects. 

Quite  an  impetus  to  my  efforts  was  received  during  a  three- 
months'  stay  in  New  York  in  1895  in  the  personalities  of  well-known 
men  in  the  schools  of  post-graduate  instruction  in  that  city,  but  the 
far-reaching  influence  of  suggestion  or  the  personal  influence  of  the 
physician  as  a  therapeutic  aid  in  the  general  practice  of  medicine 
was  not  even  faintly  appreciated  by  the  profession  at  that  time. 

In  the  latter  part  of  1899  I  became  convinced  that  the  general  pro- 
fession should  have  a  better  understanding  of  the  theory  and  efficacy 
of  suggestive  therapeutics  and  a  knowledge  of  the  practical  methods 
of  its  administration;  and,  being  fully  satisfied  that  the  methods 
which  I  had  successfully  employed  in  general  practice  for  several 
years  would  be  of  practical  value  to  all  physicians  as  an  addition  to 
their  therapeutic  armamentarium,  and  believing  also  that  this  knowl- 
edge would  be  a  means  by  which  they  could  successfully  combat  the 
enormous  increase  in  all  the  forms  of  quackery  which  were  at  that 
time  springing  up  as  the  natural  offspring  of  the  rapid  evolution  in 
psychological  development,  I  began  going  from  city  to  city,  giving 
a  lecture  on  suggestive  therapeutics,  applied  hypnotism,  and  psychic 
science,  limiting  my  classes  exclusively  to  the  medical  profession. 

The  cordial  reception  and  appreciation  accorded  me  in  this  self- 

17 


18  INTRODUCTION. 

chosen  field  of  endeavor  by  the  more  representative  portion  of  the 
medical  profession  was  beyond  my  most  sanguine  expectations,  and 
in  all  places  that  I  visited  the  physicians  taking  my  lesson  insisted 
that  it  be  put  into  a  permanent  form,  to  be  used  by  them  for  future 
reference. 

I  was  not  yet  ready  to  commit  myself  to  writing  on  this  much 
mooted  and  misunderstood  subject.  "Within  the  last  twelve  years, 
however,  the  attitude  taken  by  the  larger  part  of  the  medical  pro- 
fession in  regard  to  the  influence  of  the  mind  over  the  body  has 
considerably  changed.  The  study  of  psychology  with  laboratory  in- 
struments and  methods  has  demonstrated  the  relation  between 
thought  and  matter  in  a  most  convincing  manner. 

Monism,  a  philosophy  which  amalgamates  or  unifies  the  two  en- 
tities called  mind  and  matter,  is  becoming  more  popular.  Physi- 
ology, psychology,  and  biology  are  on  friendly  terms,  and  harmoni- 
ously laboring  to  solve  the  problems  that  are  being  forced  upon  all 
thinking  people,  as  well  as  physicians. 

In  contemplating  my  venture  of  1899,  I  now  fully  appreciate 
the  trite  saying  of  Pope  that  "fools  rush  in  where  angels  fear 
to  tread."  Be  that  as  it  may,  I  have  been  in  association  with 
those  of  the  profession  who  have  studied  psychotherapeutics  in  all 
parts  of  the  world,  and  they  have  had  no  hesitancy  in  saying  that 
I  had  boiled  down  and  crystallized  the  subject  into  a  readily  as- 
similable and  excellent  form  for  practical  clinical  use.  So  now, 
after  enjoying  the  confidence  and  appreciation  of  the  medical  pro- 
fession as  a  student  and  teacher  of  psychotherapy,  I  should  deem 
myself  reprehensible  and  cowardly  did  I  not  give  my  "mite"  to 
help  those  who  need  strengthening  on  this  line  of  advanced  pro- 
fessional equipment. 

The  strong  prejudice  and  open  opposition  to  the  free  investiga- 
tion and  employment  of  psychotherapeutics  has  exerted  an  over- 
mastering influence  upon  the  minds  of  many  of  the  members  of  the 
medical  profession,  and  many  there  are  who  lack  the  courage  and 
moral  stamina  to  enter  this  field  and  employ  its  truths  for  the  relief 
of  countless  thousands  of  individuals  who  do  not  need  medicine  or 
surgery,  yet  are  vainly  crying  to  us  for  help.  While  this  state  of 
apathy  exists  in  the  ranks  of  the  medical  profession,  the  popular 


INTRODUCTION.  19 

"ists"  and  "paths"  and  other  disguises  are  standing  with  open 
arms,  beckoning  these  discontented  and  unfortunate  ones  to  come 
into  their  ranks  and  get  their  psychotherapy  in  a  placebo  capsule  of 
religious  dogma  or  bonepath  massage. 

I  am  also  fully  aware  that  it  is  not  good  policy  for  one  seeking 
popularity  to  speak  out  frankly  and  honestly  on  this  subject  and 
tell  the  truth.  Even  physicians  in  many  instances,  who  admit  that 
they  have  made  no  effort  to  comprehend  the  principles  of  psycho- 
therapy and  apply  them  as  a  therapeutic  adjunct,  feel  that  any 
theory,  or  conception,  or  method  that  does  not  conform  to  their  pre- 
conceived ideas,  however  worn  out,  moth-eaten,  and  useless,  is  an 
insult  to  their  intelligence.  Yet,  in  spite  of  my  well-grounded  and 
justifiable  apprehensions,  I  now  dare  to  offer  this  little  volume,  con- 
taining ideas,  impressions,  and  opinions,  based  upon  conscientious 
observation,  demonstration,  tests,  and  clinical  evidence,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  upheld  by  the  more  enlightened  element  of  the  medical 
profession  in  the  leading  cities  that  I  have  visited,  on  the  other, 
perfectly  willing  to  be  ridiculed  by  those  desiring  to  do  so.  If  I 
succeed  in  convincing  some  part  of  the  profession  of  the  justice  of 
the  cause  which  I  defend,  and  at  the  same  time  give  others  the 
opportunity  of  discussing  it  with  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  facts 
upon  which  it  is  based,  this  alone  will  justify  me  in  having  under- 
taken the  preparation  of  this  little  handbook. 

It  is  not  my  desire  to  oppose  any  system  of  therapeutics,  but  to 
emphasize  the  importance  of  the  mental  factor  in  health  and  disease, 
and  to  point  out  practical  methods  that  can  be  applied  by  the  general 
practitioner  as  an  adjunct  to  his  therapeutic  resources. 

I  fully  realize  that  the  ideas  herein  expressed  will  be  of  value 
only  to  those  who  find  in  themselves  that  inexplicable  psychic  re- 
sponse, which  amounts  to  a  conviction  as  regards  the  truth  of  the 
principles  elucidated,  sufficient  to  dispel  the  general  unconcerned 
apathy  or  half-hearted  uncertainty  toward  the  practicability  of  these 
methods. 

It  has  been  my  privilege  to  get  in  close  touch  with  my  colleagues 
in  towns  and  cities,  in  private  practice,  and  in  hospitals.  Here  I 
have  studied  their  problems  and  been  uplifted  and  inspired  by  their 
courage  and  devotion  to  their  work,  and  have  learned  to  honor 


20  INTRODUCTION. 

and  reverence  character,  manifested  in  the  personality  of  a 
physician,  as  second  to  nothing  in  life.  In  their  homes,  in  their  con- 
veyances, in  the  sick  room,  and  in  their  private  office  work,  as  well 
as  in  hospitals  and  medical  societies  and  colleges,  I  have  been  given 
a  cordial  welcome,  and  here  I  desire  to  express  again  my  profound 
gratitude  for  such  attentions  by  turning  this  little  book  over  to 
them  as  a  grateful  reminder  of  bygone  pleasant  relations. 


CHAPTER  I. 
THE  AWAKENING  INTEREST  IN  PSYCHOTHERAPY. 

The  tool  of  psychotherapy  is  suggestion,  and  all  suggestion  oper- 
ates upon  the  conscious  every-day  actions  and  beliefs  of  the  patient, 
influencing  the  higher  intellectual  faculties  and  motor  functions, 
and  the  subconscious,  involuntary  psychophysiological  mechanisms 
comprising  the  functions  of  the  entire  animal  physiology. 

As  comprehended  today,  psychotherapy  is  as  much  in  the  do- 
main of  physical  and  physiological  therapeutics  as  is  medicine, 
electricity,  hydrotherapy,  massage,  surgery,  or  any  other  thera- 
peutic expedient,  and  its  application  is  just  as  scientific — its  in- 
dications just  as  clearly  defined.  The  truth  of  this  proposition  is 
not  in  the  least  questioned  by  any  one  familiar  with  the  principles 
of  modern  physiological  psychology. 

Psychotherapeutic  methods  of  procedure  may  practically  be  re- 
duced to  three  measures — psychotherapy  by  hypnotic  suggestion, 
that  by  suggestion  in  the  waking  state,  and  finally  that  by  per- 
suasion, reasoning,  or  re-education.  From  these  various  forms  of 
psychotherapy  the  medical  man  must  choose  the  method  best 
adapted  to  the  individual  case  as  presented  in  actual  clinical  work. 

All  psychical  treatment — direct  or  indirect,  whatever  be  the 
form  of  procedure — aims  at  the  persuasion  of  the  patient.  It  is 
administered  by  the  employment  of  suggestion  to  persuade,  in- 
fluence, or  encourage  the  functions  of  the  nervous  system,  whether 
acting  on  the  higher  mental  levels,  to  which  belong  conscious  and 
voluntary  actions,  or  appealing  to  the  lower  mental  levels,  including 

21 


22  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

unconscious,  automatic,  involuntary  actions.  All  methods  of  pro- 
cedure make  employment  of  suggestion,  and,  whatever  be  the  dif- 
ference in  technic  of  administration,  the  results  are  obtained  in  con- 
formity to  a  common  law — the  influence  exerted  by  impressions 
from  without  upon  the  psychophysiological  functions. 

Every  case  requires  a  special  method,  and  is  in  a  way  amenable 
to  procedures  of  verbal  suggestion.  Psychotherapy,  as  a  method, 
can  not  be  brought  under  a  single  formula.  The  intelligent 
physician  must  be  able  to  distinguish  special  indications,  and  to 
adapt  his  treatment  to  the  psychology  of  each  individual  patient. 
The  character  of  the  patient,  his  sensitiveness,  social  level,  and  his 
degree  of  intelligence  are  all  conditions  that  require  from  the 
physician,  if  he  is  to  conduct  a  successful  psychical  treatment,  the 
most  varied  modes  of  administration. 

Rational  psychotherapy  must  embrace  physiological  and  edu- 
cational therapeutics.  The  psychotherapeutic  influence  of  die- 
tetics, hydrotherapy,  exercises,  and  gymnastics,  combined  with  the 
individual  merits  of  these  therapeutic  expedients,  are  so  related 
that  the  employment  of  either  procedure  constitutes  in  some  de- 
gree the  employment  of  rational  psychotherapy.  The  value  of 
these  procedures  is  not  in  the  least  questioned  by  any  one  giving 
adequate  consideration  to  such  rational  measures  in  helping  the 
individual,  whatever  be  his  ailment  or  disease,  to  secure  and  main- 
tain a  condition  of  health. 

The  intelligence  of  our  age  demands  that  an  edequate  study 
of  man  and  the  diseases  that  afflict  him  take  into  account  the 
methods  of  developing  and  upbuilding  the  entire  man,  mental  and 
physical. 

The  attention  devoted  to  the  study  of  man's  diseases  is  most 
praiseworthy,  and  the  efforts  of  pathology  and  diagnosis  have  been 
crowned  with  glorious  achievements,  but  we  have  not  devoted 
enough  study  to  the  methods  of  maintaining  and  developing  the 
suffering  individual.  In  our  effort  to  make  an  exact  terminolog- 
ical diagnosis  and  make  a  direct  attack  upon  the  pathological 
processes,  the  sick  man  himself  has  been  neglected. 

Besides  mitigating  pathological  processes,  physicians  should  be 
prepared  to  assist  their  patients  in  making  use  of  the  normal 


THE   AWAKENING   INTEREST   IN   PSYCHOTHERAPY.  23 

mechanisms,  or  potentialities,  of  the  entire  organism  in  order  to 
safeguard  them  against  the  recurrence  of  the  outrages  of  patho- 
logical processes,  or  prevent  the  more  serious  pathological  modi- 
fications, so  far  as  such  assistance  is  practicable.  All  sick  people 
need  such  assistance.  They  need  education,  knowledge,  and 
guidance  in  order  that  they  may  secure  and  maintain  a  heightened 
degree  of  resistive  power  in  the  cells  of  the  organism,  so  as  to 
render  them  invulnerable  to  the  onslaught  of  diseased  processes. 

We  should  continue  the  study  of  the  cause  and  prevention  of 
disease.  An  intelligent  conception  of  cause  and  prevention  is 
an  absolute  necessity  for  the  stability  of  medical  science,  but 
more  study  should  be  devoted  to  the  sick  individual  demanding 
restoration  to  health.  We  have  not  given  undue  attention  to  the 
study  of  diseased  processes,  but  to  the  living  organisms  we  have 
devoted  not  enough. 

As  one  of  America's  most  eminent  therapeutists  tersely  ex- 
presses it,  "An  adequate  study  of  man  and  the  diseases  that  af- 
flict him  takes  into  account  all  his  faculties  and  functions,  mental 
and  nervous,  as  well  as  physical — all  his  surroundings,  the  condi- 
tions of  birth,  of  parentage,  and  hence  of  inheritance.  Man  is 
a  complex  being,  a  conscious  spark  of  divinity  embodied  in  matter, 
and  no  part  of  his  nature  can  be  neglected  or  ignored  without 
affecting  the  whole  man  in  greater  or  less  degree.  '^ 

No  one  who  has  given  attention  to  the  study  of  psychology  and 
of  sociology  can  dispute  that  a  very  large  percentage  of  our  diseases 
are  of  mental  origin.  Of  mental  origin  also  are  the  countless 
criminals  and  so-called  defectives  of  society.  Mental  causation 
and  physical  effects  are  correlated  just  in  the  same  way  as  sensory 
stimuli  and  cerebral  excitations  are  correlated  to  physical  anatomy. 

Butler  truly  says,  "The  power  of  mind  over  matter — or,  more 
rationally,  the  relation  between  mind  and  matter — is  everywhere 
being  recognized  with  its  true  bearing  on  life  and  its  various  mani- 
festations, and  the  uplifting  of  the  human  race  to  higher  mental 
and  intellectual  planes  has  already  begun.  But  man  is  not  more 
all  mind  than  he  is  all  matter,  and  Christian  science,  mental  heal- 
ing, and  such  like  cults,  having  their  good  and  evil  side  according 
as  their  exponents  are  sincere  and  intelligent  or  the  reverse,  have 


24  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

done  some  good  and  some  harm,  and  so  doubtless  will  continue  to 
do  to  the  end  of  the  chapter.  These  cults  all  present  interesting 
psychological  studies,  and,  if  examined  fairly  and  dispassionately, 
they  will  prove  valuable  and  instructive." 

It  is  by  reason  of  the  neglect  of  psychological  methods  of 
treatment  by  the  medical  profession  that  many  sick  people  have 
been  forced  to  ignore  scientific  medicine  in  vain  effort  to  obtain 
relief  from  their  psychophysical  ills,  and  to  seek  aid  from  the 
Christian  scientist,  the  osteopath,  the  magnetic  healer,  or  any- 
thing that  offered  help  by  means  other  than  persistent  drugging 
and  unreasonable  surgical  procedures.  That  drugs  and  surgery 
are,  and  have  been,  two  of  the  greatest  blessings  to  the  human  race 
none  but  a  tyro  will  question  in  the  least,  but  that  they  have  been, 
and  at  present  are,  greatly  abused  is  one  of  the  most  glaring  and 
reprehensible  discredits  to  the  medical  profession. 

The  essential  argument  of  the  advocates  of  this  branch  of 
professional  equipment  is,  first,  the  universality  of  its  applica- 
tion as  an  adjunct  to  all  classes  of  professional  work.  It  is  not  to 
be  regarded  as  a  specialty.  No  special  type  of  personality  is  es- 
sential to  its  successful  employment  any  more  than  is  requisite  in 
any  other  branch  of  medicine  or  surgery.  Like  all  other 
measures,  all  that  is  needed  is  a  knowledge  of  the  fundamental 
principles  upon  which  its  application  as  a  therapeutic  measure  is 
based  and  a  practical  knowledge  of  the  technic  of  the  various 
methods  of  its  employment.  The  same  is  true  of  the  employment 
of  surgery,  materia  medica  agencies,  electrotherapeutics,  hydro- 
therapy,  dietetics,  and  any  other  method  of  physical  or  physio- 
logical therapeutics. 

The  second  of  the  arguments  in  favor  of  the  employment  of 
psychotherapeutic  principles  is  that  it  is  based  upon  sound,  ra- 
tional, scientific  principles.  Mental  processes,  physiological  proc- 
esses, and  physical  effects  are  related  to  each  other  in  such  a  way 
that  each  reinforces  the  other. 

The  impression  that  some  physicians  have  that  psychotherapy 
directly  demands  from  them  that  they  are  to  humbug  their 
patients,  or  throw  out  suggestions  which  they  themselves  do  not 
believe,  and  thus  bring  them  down  to  the  level  of  the  Christian 


THE   AWAKENING    INTEREST   IN    PSYCHOTHERAPY.  25 

scientist,  the  osteopath,  or  the  magnetic  healer,  is  altogether  an 
erroneous  one.  The  tendency  of  the  physician  under  such  im- 
pressions to  steer  shy  of  the  measure  only  shows  his  conscientious 
instinct  on  the  one  hand,  and  illustrates  his  misconception  of  the 
subject  on  the  other.1 

In  all  branches  of  medicine  and  surgery  the  line  of  demarca- 
tion between  real  science  and  its  counterfeit  is  a  very  distinct 
one.  The  same  is  true  as  regards  the  employment  of  psycho- 
therapeutic  principles.  A  physician  making  employment  of  psy- 
chotherapy can  make  no  greater  mistake  than  to  deviate  in  the 
least  from  the  path  of  complete  sincerity  from  his  first  steps  in 
diagnosis  to  the  employment  of  treatment  for  the  relief  of  the 
condition  found  to  be  present.1 

It  is  not  necessary  to  make  false  or  unreasonable  promises  in 
such  cases  where  we  believe  that  complete  cure  through  the  em- 
ployment of  psychotherapeutic  principles  is  impossible.  Even 
where  we  employ  suggestion  pure  and  simple,  if  we  are  to  expect 
satisfactory  results,  they  must  be  suggestions  that  are  true  and 
only  the  truth,  as  the  experience  of  the  patient  and  the  actual 
physical  and  mental  effects  on  the  patient  will  in  the  due  course 
of  time  confirm.  Like  the  employment  of  all  other  measures, 
surgical  or  medicinal,  the  results  largely,  if  not  entirely,  "de- 
pend upon  the  man  behind  the  gun" — upon  the  personality  of  the 
physician  making  employment  of  the  methods  at  hand.  It  is  the 
function  of  the  psychotherapist  to  so  engage  the  psychophysical 
organism  of  his  patient  as  to  produce  the  results  desired  by  the 
employment  of  the  normal  physiological  mechanism  of  the  nervous 
system. 

The  induction  of  anesthesia  by  suggestion  is  illustrative  of  the 
principle  involved.  The  same  principle  is  employed  in  securing 
sleep,  or  for  the  relief  of  pain,  or  to  stimulate  the  functional 
activity  of  the  stomach  in  perverted  nutrition.  The  nervous  sys- 
tem not  only  acts  in  the  performance  of  its  various  functions, 
but  it  also  reacts  to  the  influence  of  mental  and  physical  stimuli. 
In  every  one  there  are  capabilities  which  potentially  exist  only  when 
brought  into  action  by  a  psychophysiological  stimulus. 


1  Hugo   Miinsterberg:      Psychotherapy. 


26  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

The  reaction  of  the  nervous  system  to  the  stimulus  of  phycho- 
therapeutic  methods  brings  about  the  change  from  the  abnormal 
to  the  normal,  from  the  pathological  to  the  physiological,  from 
the  unhealthy  to  the  healthy,  from  a  condition  of  functional 
inertia  to  one  potentially  active.  In  all  diseased  conditions,  by 
whatever  therapeutic  measure  we  may  employ,  it  is  the  restora- 
tion of  functional  activity  that  accomplishes  the  cure.  This  func- 
tional re-establishment  is  the  sine  qua  non  to  the  successful  result 
achieved,  by  whatever  measures  we  employ,  in  the  treatment  of  any 
disease. 

The  third  of  the  arguments  in  favor  of  the  employment  of  psy- 
chotherapy is  the  large  scope  of  its  application  in  the  general  prac- 
tice of  medicine.  In  all  acute  diseases  it  is,  when  judiciously  and 
skillfully  employed,  our  most  reliable  functional  stimulant,  though 
generally  unrecognized. 

By  its  employment  we  quiet  nervousness,  promote  sleep,  aid 
digestion,  encourage  secretion  and  excretion,  and,  through  a  re- 
establishment  of  perverted  functions,  bring  about  an  increased 
resistive  power  of  every  cell  of  the  elements  comprising  the  com- 
plex mechanism  of  the  entire  animal  physiology.  With  its  skill- 
ful employment  the  physician  himself  becomes  one  of  the  most 
potent  aids  in  his  therapeutic  armamentarium. 

To  speak  in  general  terms,  he  can  employ  such  measures  to 
retard  the  pulse,  to  inhibit  pain,  to  lessen  temperature,  to  modify 
hemorrhage,  to  stimulate  functional  activity,  and,  in  consequence 
of  its  employment  as  a  physiological  stimulant,  to  make  new  blood 
and  to  increase  the  resistive  power  of  all  normal  cellular  elements 
to  the  onslaught  of  pathological  processes. 

Psychotherapy  finds  a  most  valuable  field  in  the  correction  of 
vices,  the  curing  of  various  drug  habits,  developing  latent  talents, 
strengthening  the  muscles,  and  in  correcting  such  morbid 
psychasthenic  conditions  as  the  various  phobias,  obsessions  and 
associated  conditions,  despondency,  and  other  morbid  mental  mani- 
festations. 

Not  only  are  results  realized  in  so-called  functional  and 
psychoneurotic  conditions — such  as  headaches,  neuralgias,  rheu- 
matism, impotency,  certain  forms  of  asthma,  writer's  cramp,  con- 


THE   AWAKENING    INTEREST    IN    PSYCHOTHERAPY.  27 

stipation,  nocturnal  enuresis,  inebriety,  drug  habit,  hysteria,  and 
monomania — but  excellent  results  are  obtained  in  various  gyne- 
cological diseases  of  a  functional  character,  and  in  perversions 
and  weaknesses  of  all  kinds ;  also  in  pernicious  and  other  forms  of 
anemia,  chronic  malarial  infection,  and  for  the  relief  of  the  mor- 
bid psychic  element  accompanying  organic  valvular  lesions,  and 
to  assist  in  the  functionating  of  the  disabled  heart  as  well. 

Medicine  'has  always  paid  much  attention  to  the  psychic  side 
of  disease.  Though  unconsciously  and  unintentionally,  she 
has  been  forced  to  consider  the  psychic  factor  not  only  in  com- 
ing to  her  diagnosis,  but  also  in  planning  her  treatment.  From 
time  immemorial  physicians  have  consciously  or  unconsciously 
utilized  the  minds  of  their  patients,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  com- 
bat their  ills.  What  constitutes  the  more  recent  development  in 
this  field  is  the  more  extended  and  more  precise  application  of 
psychic  methods  of  diagnosis,  and  the  elaboration  and  more  in- 
telligent utilization  of  psychotherapeutic  methods.  As  Professor 
Lewellys  F.  Barker  remarks,1  "Modern  medicine  is  striving  toward 
rational  psychic  diagnosis  and  rational  psychotherapy." 

The  inquiry  into  the  psychic  state  of  the  patient  is  often  more 
important  than  the  somatic  inquiry,  but  how  seldom  does  the  phy- 
sician investigate  systematically  the  cause  of  the  mental  condition. 
The  technic  of  eliciting  mental  symptoms  has  to  be  learned  and 
practiced  just  as  one  has  to  learn  and  practice  the  technic  of  phys- 
ical diagnosis. 

The  latest  movement  in  the  employment  of  psychotherapy  in 
the  treatment  of  mental  diseases  is  in  connection  with  the  name 
of  Freud,  of  Vienna,  commonly  referred  to  as  the  psychoanalytic 
form  of  psychotherapy,  in  which  he  seeks  to  remove  the  ultimate 
mental  cause  giving  rise  to  certain  symptoms  resulting  from  a 
psychical  trauma — a  disagreeable  idea  which,  inhibited  in  the  mind, 
becomes  the  source  of  mischief  and  produces  phobias,  obsessions, 
and  hysterical  manifestations.  This  method  of  diagnosis  and 
psychotherapeutic  treatment,  which  is  entirely  in  its  beginning, 
promises  wide  application  in  a  hitherto  very  intractable  class  of 
patients. 


1  Address  before  Rush   College  medical   students,    1907. 


28  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

Among  others  whose  contributions  to  the  development  of  mod- 
ern psychotherapy  stand  out  conspicuous  are  the  names  of  such 
men  as  Janet,  Bernheim,  Liebeault,  Binet,  Dubois,  Prince,  Put- 
nam, Boris  Sidis,  Miinsterberg,  Jung,  Forel,  and  many  others. 

These  writers  apparently  would  limit  the  field  of  psychotherapy 
to  neurology  and  psychiatry  when  it  is  equally  applicable  as  a 
therapeutic  adjunct  in  all  classes  of  professional  work.  They  have 
conclusively  demonstrated  that  a  functional  disorder,  so-called,  is 
as  much  a  real  disease  as  any  other  abnormal  mental  or  physical 
state.  The  work  of  the  general  practitioner  is  preventive  as  well 
as  curative,  and,  if  he  is  well  equipped  with  the  theoretical  basis  of 
psychotherapy,  together  with  the  practical  methods  of  its  employ- 
ment, many  patients  would  be  relieved  by  him  before  their  symp- 
toms reach  such  gravity  as  to  seek  aid  from  the  neurologist  or 
psychiatrist.  Psychotherapy  is  applicable  in  all  classes  of  medical 
practice  as  an  adjunct  to  other  recognized  agencies. 

The  Journal  of  Abnormal  Psychology,  June- July,  1909,  con- 
tains eight  interesting  and  highly  instructive  papers  upon  various 
aspects  of  psychotherapy  which  were  read  before  the  American 
Therapeutic  Society  at  the  annual  meeting  in  New  Haven,  Con- 
necticut, in  May,  1909. 

The  significance  of  the  awakening  interest  in  this  branch  of 
therapeutics  on  the  part  of  the  medical  profession  is  indicated  by 
the  fact  that  the  president  of  the  American  Therapeutic  So- 
ciety, Frederick  H.  Gerrish,  professor  of  surgery  in  Bowdoin 
Medical  College,  Brunswick,  Maine,  in  the  endeavor  to  learn  what 
subjects  most  interested  the  physicians  constituting  the  member- 
ship of  this  society,  wrote  to  almost  the  entire  membership,  asking 
each  to  suggest  topics  for  three  symposia.  Many  of  the  corre- 
spondents proposed  psychotherapy,  and  these  suggestions,  he  said, 
coincided  with  his  purpose  to  have,  if  possible,  a  discussion  on 
the  subject  which  has  not  been  previously  presented,  and  one  of 
such  importance  that  every  medical  practitioner,  whatever  be  his 
favorite  line  of  work,  should  be  well  grounded  in  its  principles  and 
familiar  with  its  methods. 

In  the  introductory  address  by  Professor  Gerrish,  as  president 
of  the  American  Therapeutic  Society,  he  says:  "Indeed,  most 


THE   AWAKENING   INTEREST    IN   PSYCHOTHERAPY.  29 

physicians,  and  some  neurologists,  have  little  appreciation  of  this 
branch  of  the  healing  art,  and  treat  it  cavalierly,  if  they  deign 
to  give  it  any  consideration.  The  time  seemed  opportune  for  a 
careful,  serious,  scientific  study  of  the  subject  by  this  society,  the 
only  national  organization  in  America  devoted  exclusively  to 
therapeutics.  Furthermore,  it  was  plain  to  me  that  this  associa- 
tion, whose  single  purpose  is  so  conspicuously  declared  by  its  name, 
was  under  a  peculiar  obligation  to  the  profession  in  the  premises, 
and  ought,  as  far  as  possible,  to  correct  the  misapprehensions 
which  prevail  concerning  psychotherapy,  and  accord  the  sanction 
of  its  interest  and  influence  to  this  valuable  form  of  treatment. 
By  great  good  fortune  the  aid  of  eight  physicians  was  enlisted  in 
this  cause,  all  of  whom  are  learned  in  modern  psychology,  expert 
in  neurology,  skillful  in  psychotherapy,  and  enthusiastic  in  ex- 
pounding their  favorite  doctrines.  They  constitute  a  galaxy  which 
can  not  be  duplicated  on  this  continent. ' ' 

It  is  particularly  pleasing  to  me  to  see  that  all  that  I  have 
claimed  for  psychotherapy  as  an  adjunct  to  the  generally  recog- 
nized therapeutic  agencies,  in  the  general  practice  of  medicine, 
still  stands  unscathed  and  unreproached  by  the  theories  of  the 
eight  participants  in  this  symposium,  all  of  whom,  in  the  words  of 
Professor  Gerrish,  "are  learned  in  modern  psychology,  expert  in 
neurology,  skillful  in  psychotherapy,  constituting  a  galaxy  which 
can  not  be  duplicated  on  the  continent." 

The  theories  advanced  by  these  scholarly  essayists  and  that  given 
by  me  in  explanation  of  the  results  obtained  by  the  employment 
of  psychotherapeutic  principles,  or  of  the  personal  influence  of 
the  physician  both  with  and  without  the  employment  of  hypnotism, 
are  identical  in  idea,  in  fact,  and  in  method,  as  well  as  in  scope  of 
application,  the  difference  being  only  one  of  phraseology — of 
terms  used  to  convey  ideas. 

For  practical  purposes,  our  knowledge  of  psychotherapy  should 
consist  of  an  apprehension  of  facts  and  a  description  of  those 
facts  in  terms  that  can  be  comprehended  by  the  intelligence  of 
the  average  physician,  as  well  as  by  the  well-educated  medical 
student.  Our  medical  education  has  been  so  deficient  in  this  branch 
of  study  that  the  average  well-educated  physician  is  lost  in  con- 


30  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

fusion  of  terms  used  by  the  majority  of  psychotherapeutists  to 
elucidate  the  principles  of  psychotherapy,  and  they  fall  short  of 
an  elucidation  of  the  subject  that  would  be  of  practical  value  to  the 
general  practitioner. 

Our  medical  schools  are  responsible  for  the  apparent  apathy 
on  the  part  of  many  physicians  as  regards  psychotherapeutic  treat- 
ment, as  in  none  of  them,  except  two  or  three  of  the  larger  eastern 
universities,  is  the  subject  taught  as  a  part  of  the  medical  curric- 
ulum. The  physicians  who  have  been  aroused  to  a  realization  of 
the  utility  of  such  measures  are,  as  a  rule,  those  who  have  had 
their  attention  drawn  to  the  subject  by  experiences  in  the  post- 
graduate schools  of  Europe  and  also,  in  some  measure,  in  New 
York  and  Chicago. 

The  spirit  of  commercialism  which  actuates  the  movements  of 
the  promoters  of  our  multiplicity  of  medical  colleges  is  evidently 
responsible  for  the  neglect  of  the  teaching  of  such  methods  as  will 
establish  or  induce  in  the  individual  comparative  immunity  to 
infection  and  other  etiological  factors  of  disease.  Many  physicians 
are  narrow  enough  to  see  in  such  measures  as  will  increase  the 
efficiency  of  the  individual  a  direct  antagonist  to  all  other  thera- 
peutic expedients,  instead  of  regarding  them  as  an  efficient  thera- 
peutic adjunct. 

Doctor  Jacob  Gould  Sherman,  in  his  address  before  the  Joint 
Council  on  Medical  Education  and  the  Committee  on  Public  Leg- 
islation of  the  American  Medical  Association,  sounded  the  keynote 
to  the  situation  in  saying,1  "And  if  in  this  presence  I  do  not  say 
that  the  medical  profession  has  been  commercialized,  I  do  not  hes- 
itate to  assert  that  many  medical  schools  and  colleges  have  been 
established  for  the  pecuniary  benefit  of  their  promoters,  with  the 
result  that  we  now  have  in  the  United  States  almost  as  many  of 
these  institutions  as  all  the  rest  of  the  civilized  world,  and  our 
standards  of  medical  education  are  a  disgrace  to  the  nation  and 
an  outrage  on  humanity.  .  .  .  Considering  the  close  relation 
between  mind  and  body  and  the  dependence  of  some  diseases  on 
mental  conditions,  I  ain  often  amazed  that  medical  men  fail  so 
completely  to  realize  the  importance  of  the  study  of  the  sciences 

'Journal  of  the  American  Medical   Association,    April   16.   1910. 


THE   AWAKENING   INTEREST   IN   PSYCHOTHERAPY.  31 

of  mind  as  a  part  of  that  curriculum  of  the  preliminary  education 
they  lay  down  for  prospective  students  of  medicine." 

Upon  this  phase  of  the  subject  Miinsterberg  remarks:  "Indeed 
the  time  is  ripe  for  a  systematic  introduction  of  psychological 
studies  into  every  regular  medical  course.  It  is  not  a  question  of 
mental  research  in  the  psychological  laboratory  where  advanced 
work  is  carried  on,  but  a  solid  foundation  in  empirical  psychology 
can  be  demanded  of  every  one.  He  ought  to  have  as  much  psy- 
chology as  he  has  physiology." 

Lewellys  F.  Barker,  professor  of  medicine  in  Johns  Hopkins 
University,  tells  us  that1  "America,  so  far  ahead  in  many  subjects 
of  medical  instruction,  is  no  less  than  fifty  years  behind  Europe  in 
this  particular. ' ' 


1  Address  before  Rush  College  medical  students. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  RELATION  OF  PSYCHOTHERAPY  TO  THE  GENERAL 
PRACTICE  OF  MEDICINE  AND  SURGERY. 

Whatever  may  be  our  favorite  line  of  professional  work,  we  can 
not  overlook  the  fact  that  we  are,  as  physicians,  a  body  of  organ- 
ized men  laboring  for  the  common  good  of  humanity.  The  med- 
ical profession  is  for  mankind,  and  its  greatest  problem  is  to  secure 
honest  and  faithful  performance  of  professional  obligation. 

Important  questions  in  special  departments  of  medicine  must 
constantly  claim  our  attention,  and  it  is  therefore  easy  in  the  zeal 
of  our  specialties  to  lose  sight  of  the  simple  requirements  of  fidelity 
to  the  public  at  large. 

Whatever  be  the  merits  of  our  special  departments  of  professional 
work,  the  final  test  must  ever  be  found  in  the  character  and  pur- 
pose of  our  effort  to  contribute  to  the  public  weal.  It  should  be 
borne  in  mind  that  we  are  not  merely  doctors,  but  something  more. 
We  are  American  citizens,  and  as  such  nothing  should  seduce,  or 
daunt,  or  affright  us,  or  shake  that  adherence  to  the  principles  of 
fair  dealing  and  honorable  execution  of  duty  which  makes  every 
medical  practitioner  the  embodiment  of  the  cause  of  liberty. 

It  is  in  this  altruistic  spirit  that,  as  both  a  physician  and  an  Amer- 
ican citizen,  these  remarks  are  addressed  to  the  profession  of  medi- 
cine. My  aim  is  to  show  that  in  psychotherapy  we  have  an  inval- 
uable adjunct  to  all  classes  of  professional  work,  and  that  the 
ultimate  end  of  its  more  extensive  employment  would  be  a  great 
contribution  to  the  common  welfare  of  humanity ;  not  to  disparage 
other  branches  of  professional  work,  but  to  show  that  in  psycho- 
therapy all  branches  of  medicine  have  an  efficient  aid  in  the  treat- 
ment of  sick  people  and  of  all  others  who  seek  our  help.  ' '  Its  evo- 
lution, like  that  of  all  other  modes  of  treatment,  is  marked  by  an 
ever-increasing  precision  in  method  and  an  ever-deepening  eom- 

32 


PSYCHOTHERAPY    AND   GENERAL   PRACTICE.  33 

prehension  of  the  conditions  to  which  it  is  applicable.  Progress  in 
these  two  respects  must  always  go  hand  in  hand,  for  the  moment 
therapeutics  becomes  divorced  from  pathology  and  diagnosis  it 
leaves  its  scientific  basis  and  stands  in  danger  of  approximating  to 
that  medical  charlatanry  which  it  is  the  highest  interest  of  our 
profession  to  combat. ' ' x 

Each  member  of  the  human  race  is  potentially  the  result  of  what 
he  brings  into  this  world  as  an  inheritance,  on  the  one  hand,  modi- 
fied by  environment,  on  the  other.  In  the  employment  of  psycho- 
therapy the  physician  himself  becomes  a  part  of  the  patient's  en- 
vironment in  a  truer  and  deeper  sense  than  is  done  without  an 
effort  to  employ  psychotherapeutic  principles,  and  through  its  appli- 
cation determines  a  new  sequence  of  ideas. 

All  psychotherapeutic  measures  are  educational  measures  pure 
and  simple.  The  importance  of  education  in  determining  what  the 
individual  is  in  mental  and  physical  attributes  is  not  accorded  the 
consideration  that  it  deserves  at  the  present  time.  It  constitutes 
one  of  the  most  potent  therapeutic  resources  at  our  command,  and 
its  value  extends  not  only  in  the  field  of  preventive  medicine,  but  as 
a  direct  therapeutic  resource  as  well. 

In  the  field  of  preventive  medicine  we  have  accomplished  much 
by  the  employment  of  educational  procedures.  Smallpox,  yellow 
fever,  cholera,  and  many  other  contagious  and  infectious  diseases 
have  been  practically  exterminated,  but  more  yet  remains  to  be 
accomplished.  By  teaching  the  people  how  to  avoid  the  sources  of 
infection  from  the  typhoid  fever  bacillus,  the  bacillus  of  menin- 
gitis, hookworm,  diphtheria,  and  scarlet  fever  infections,  which  has 
been  enforced  upon  the  public  by  scientific  men,  thousands  of  human 
lives  are  today  saved  which  in  former  times  were  sacrificed  to  igno- 
rance. When  more  is  known  of  the  causes  of  cancer  and  pellagra, 
it  is  strongly  probable  that  these  scourges  of  the  human  race  will 
be  quelled  in  the  same  way. 

Shakespeare's  expression,  "Ignorance  is  the  curse  of  God;  knowl- 
edge the  wings  wherewith  to  fly  to  Heaven,"  might  well  be  para- 
phrased so  as  to  read,  "Ignorance  is  the  cause  of  disease;  knowl- 


1  Ernest  Jones. — Journal   of  Abnormal   Psychology,   June-July,   1909. 


34  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

edge  is  the  wings  wherewith  to  fly  to  health."     The  etiologieal 
factors  of  disease  are  here,  and  ever  will  be. 

It  is  up  to  the  individual  to  live  so  as  to  maintain  a  degree  of 
resistive  power  that  will  render  the  cells  of  his  organism  invulner- 
able to  the  outrages  of  pathological  process.  That  this  is  the  real 
problem  for  the  individual,  and  therefore  for  the  medical  profes- 
sion— the  problem  of  man  for  mankind — must  be  plain  to  every 
one,  but  how  are  we  to  go  about  it?  The  accomplishment  of  this 
end  is  the  goal  sought  by  scientific  medicine — our  real  problem — 
before  which  every  other  problem  fades  into  insignificance.  To  this 
end  we  need  the  contribution  of  every  department  of  medical  science 
and  of  surgery  as  well. 

But  pathology  alone  will  not  solve  the  problem.  Finding  mi- 
crobes and  abnormal  cells,  or  making  blood  counts,  will  not  do  the 
work  for  the  individual.  Pathological  findings  help  us  better  to 
determine  what  we  can  do  for  him  and  what  we  can  get  him  to  do 
for  himself,  and  therein  is  its  greatest  help. 

Surgery  will  not  solve  the  problem.  We  can  remove  the  path- 
ological processes,  cut  out  or  destroy  the  diseased  part,  but,  if  we 
do  that  and  nothing  more,  we  frequently  accomplish  very  little  for 
the  individual. 

Medicine,  alone  or  combined  with  electrotherapeutics,  hydrother- 
apy,  and  massage,  will  not  solve  the  problem. 

After  we  have  all  the  assistance  offered  by  the  combined  thera- 
peutic, mechanical,  and  surgical  devices  of  medicine,  as  it  is  gen- 
erally taught  and  practiced  today,  we  have  not  done  enough.  We 
need  to  do  something  more.  We  need  to  help  to  equip  the  individual 
to  help  himself. 

To  help  those  individuals  who  stand  in  need  of  such  assistance 
to  so  make  employment  of  their  physiological  machinery  that  the 
highest  possible  condition  of  physical  and  mental  stability  may  be 
maintained  while  making  the  struggle  for  existence,  is  the  special 
function  of  psychotherapy. 

Let  me  make  a  picture.  Over  on  one  side  we  see  arrayed  two 
powerful  forces  of  nature.  The  one  is  composed  of  inherited  weak- 
nesses, microbes,  and  ignorance— the  etiologieal  factors  of  disease. 
On  the  other  side  are  arrayed  the  accumulated  knowledge  of  all  ages, 


PSYCHOTHERAPY   AND   GENERAL   PRACTICE.  35 

human  intelligence,  altruism — the  real  helpers  of  man.  The  com- 
bat between  these  two  forces  is  both  pathetic  and  interesting,  and 
a  recitation  of  its  history  marks  the  footprints  of  evolution  and  the 
development  of  modern  science.  But  the  fight  is  only  half  begun. 
Obsolete  therapeutic  systems,  unreasonable  surgical  procedures, 
false  theological  concepts,  and  irrational  educational  methods, 
which  have  been  hindrances  to  the  welfare  of  the  human  race, 
are  being  rapidly  refuted,  and  the  adherents  of  scientific  knowl- 
edge, practically  applied,  are  day  by  day  gaining  new  victories — 
victories  for  the  whole  of  mankind. 

We  are  accomplishing  much  today  in  a  therapeutic  way  by  edu- 
cational methods  pure  and  simple.  The  civilized  world  is  witness- 
ing a  movement  on  the  part  of  the  medical  profession  that  is  des- 
tined to  equip  the  people  to  fortify  themselves  against  the  ravages 
of  the  malarial  and  tubercle  infections,  which  have  so  long  been  the 
most  formidable  of  the  enemies  of  the  human  race,  with  results  that 
promise  the  dawn  of  a  new  and  brighter  day  to  millions  of  people, 
as  well  as  the  saving  to  the  world  annually  of  thousands  of  human 
lives. 

For  the  protection  of  the  people  against  the  ravages  of  the 
malarial  infection,  they  are  taught  the  importance  of  the  isolation 
of  the  infected  individual  by  the  use  of  screens  to  prevent  the 
transmission  of  the  infection  by  the  mosquito,  and  the  employment 
of  quinin  taken  internally  to  render  them  immune  to  the  infec- 
tion, as  well  as  to  cure  the  disease  after  the  failure  to  observe  the 
precautions  to  prevent  it. 

But  the  message  that  science  brings  today  to  those  infected 
with  the  tubercle  bacillus  is  an  index  to  another  important  truth 
that  the  profession  by  these  psychotherapeutic  prophylactic  pro- 
cedures is  attempting  to  drive  home  to  the  consciousness  of  man- 
kind. Our  leading  pathologists  and  clinicians  are  saying  to  the 
individual  in  the  incipient  stage  of  tuberculosis:  "Your  hope  is 
in  the  line  of  self  -development ;  you  must  live  so  as  to  maintain  a 
degree  of  resistive  power  in  the  cells  of.  your  organism  to  the 
extent  that  they  will  be  invulnerable  to  the  ravages  of  the  tuber- 
cle bacillus,  and  this  factor  will  not  count  so  far  as  you  are  con- 
cerned." 


36  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

The  very  beginning  of  the  treatment  of  tuberculosis  is  by  sug- 
gestion. It  suggests  that  the  individual  avail  himself  of  fresh 
air  in  abundance,  of  sunshine,  easily  assimilated  food,  sleep,  and 
work.  It  assures  the  patient  that  he  can  outlive  the  enemy;  and 
the  physician  who  himself  most  sincerely  believes  in  the  efficacy 
of  the  means  to  secure  the  desired  therapeutic  result  is  always 
the  most  successful  in  the  treatment  of  this  disease,  because  his 
confidence  not  only  enables  the  patient  to  better  co-operate  in 
the  employment  of  the  regimen  outlined,  but  has  a  weighty 
psychophysiologieal  significance  in  the  promotion  of  the  welfare 
of  the  patient  as  well. 

His  association  with  his  patient  results  not  only  in  the  admin- 
istration of  psychotherapy,  strictly  speaking,  but  in  the  training 
of  the  patient  into  such  habits  of  thought  and  action  that  call 
into  play  neuron  elements,  the  functionating  of  which  enables  the 
patient  to  conform  to  the  physiological  requirements  of  health. 
Such  association  inspires  hope,  confidence,  and  expectancy,  and 
the  mental  states  thus  created,  or  induced,  encourage  all  of  the 
involuntary  physiological  processes.  Such  a  psychophysiologieal 
stimulus  aids  the  functionating  of  the  normal  nervous  mechanisms 
of  the  animal  physiology  to  the  extent  that  increased  phagocytosis 
results  and  a  corresponding  increase  in  constructive  metabolism, 
which  adds  to  the  dynamic  potency  of  every  cell  of  the  human 
organism. 

By  the  employment  of  psychotherapy  we  assist  nature  in  her 
efforts  to  combat  morbid  processes,  and  in  this  way  we  aid  all 
other  therapeutic  expedients.  By  such  measures  we  place  the 
patient  under  the  most  favorable  circumstances  for  nature  to  do 
her  work,  and,  at  critical  moments,  we  stimulate  the  patient's 
flagging  powers  and  thus  bridge  over  a  yawning  gulf.  We  can 
palliate  many  of  the  distressing  symptoms  of  disease,  but  we  can 
not  atone  for  all  the  outrageous  infringements  of  nature's  inex- 
orable laws.  Neither  can  we  remedy  such  matters  by  dosing  with 
drugs,  or  by  surgical  procedures,  or  by  any  other  therapeutic 
device;  moreover,  it  is  not  likely  that  we  ever  shall  be  able  to 
do  so. 

Psychotherapy,    correctly    construed,    could    very    appropriately 


PSYCHOTHERAPY   AND   GENERAL   PRACTICE.  37 

be  designated  as  the  employment  of  psychological,  physiological, 
and  educational  therapeutics.  Such  must  be  the  conception  of 
"psychotherapy"  before  it  is  rational.  When  the  physician  fails 
to  employ  ideas  purely  as  a  physiological  or  functional  stimulant, 
especially  in  depressing  diseases,  he  omits  the  sine  qua  non  to 
successfully  treat  disease.  When  he  leaves  out  of  consideration 
the  measures  to  get  his  patient  to  conform  to  the  physiological 
requirements  of  health  as  a  means  of  obtaining  the  best  thera- 
peutic results,  he  is  neglecting  one  of  the  greatest  therapeutic 
adjuncts  available.  When  he  fails  to  educate  his  patient  into 
such  habits  of  living — eating,  exercise,  sleep,  work,  rest,  fresh  air, 
sunshine,  and  cheerfulness — as  well  as  to  arouse  in  him  such  men- 
tal states  as  are  within  themselves  of  direct  therapeutic  value,  he 
is  strongly  allied  to  the  charlatan  who  ignores  other  well-recog- 
nized therapeutic  agencies. 

But  it  is  particularly  in  functional  and  neuropathic  disorders 
that  psychotherapy  is  most  successful.  When  the  term  "func- 
tional" is  employed  in  the  above  statement,  we  must  understand 
that  both  mind  and  body  are  in  disorder — that  the  function  of 
the  disturbed  brain  cells  accompanies  the  ineffective  will,  and  that 
to  reinforce  the  will  means  to  again  bring  into  equilibrium  the 
disturbed  brain  cells.  There  is  a  strong  temptation  for  the  psy- 
chotherapeutist  to  give  attention  only  to  the  mental  symptoms  of 
disease,  but  the  more  firmly  the  physician  adheres  to  the  stand- 
point of  psychophysiology,  the  better  he  will  see  disorder  and 
cure  in  the  right  proportion.1 

The  entire  personality,  mind  and  body,  should  be  considered, 
and  the  popular  separation  between  organic  and  functional  dis- 
eases should  no  longer  be  tolerated.  Every  psychical  disturbance 
is  organic,  inasmuch  as  it  is  based  on  a  molecular  change  which 
deranges  the  function.  Some  of  these  changes  are  beyond  resti- 
tution; some  can  be  restored  to  normal  activity  by  medicinal 
prescriptions,  mechanics,  and  hydrotherapy,  or  dietetics;  but  the 
vast  majority  can  be  repaired  only  by  physiological  stimuli  which 
reach  directly  the  higher  brain  cells  through  the  sense  organs,  and 


1Hugo  Munsterberg:      Psychotherapy. 


38  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

which  we  call  psychical  under  one  aspect,  but  which  certainly 
remain  physiological  influences  from  another  aspect.1 

Most  of  the  so-called  functional  disorders,  among  which  are  the 
neurasthenics  and  psychasthenics,  are  maintained  in  consequence 
of  physiological  insufficiency  or  incompetency.  The  cells  of  the 
entire  physiological  organism  do  not  properly  perform  their  func- 
tion. Consequently  a  lowered  degree  of  resistive  power  is  main- 
tained, which  renders  the  individual  particularly  susceptible  to 
the  ravages  of  pathological  processes.  The  timely  treatment  of 
such  cases  by  such  measures  as  will  restore  the  disordered  func- 
tion will  prevent  its  resulting  in  gross  pathological  changes.  ' '  The 
psychophysiological  influence  of  spoken  words,  whether  employed 
with  or  without  hypnosis,  is  as  rational  and  effective  as  the  bath, 
the  electric  current,  or  the  opiate. ' ' 1 

The  neurasthenic  and  psychasthenic  classes  are  the  too  frequent 
victims  of  all  kinds  of  quackery  and  the  over-enthusiastic  surgeon 
as  well.  When  surgery  is  resorted  to  for  the  relief  of  the  minor 
structural  abnormality  so  frequently  observed  in  a  patient  of 
an  already  lowered  resistive  power,  such  patient  is  seldom  bene- 
fited thereby,  but  in  the  larger  percentage  of  cases  actually  made 
worse.  The  draught  upon  the  reserved  forces  by  the  employment 
of  the  anesthetic  with  a  patient  of  unstable  nervous  organization, 
and  the  amount  of  reserved  energy  consumed  in  the  process  of 
repair  from  the  operation,  is  far  in  excess  of  the  benefit  that 
accrues  in  the  larger  proportion  of  cases. 

What  we  see  depends  not  only  upon  what  we  are  looking  for 
in  the  consideration  of  a  given  case,  but  upon  the  way  we  see  it. 
It  largely  depends  upon  the  impressions  made  upon  and  con- 
served by  our  brain  cells. 

The  psychology  of  excessive  specialization  in  medicine  or 
surgery  is  a  most  interesting  one  and  well  worthy  of  our  atten- 
tion. Contemporary  psychologists  are  fully  agreed  upon  the  fact 
that  the  nervous  system  faithfully  conserves  and  reproduces  its 
experiences;  that  conservation  is  fundamental  for  education;  that 
ideas  which  make  up  viewpoints,  attitudes  of  mind,  beliefs,  and 

1  Hugo   Miinsterberg:      Psychotherapy. 


PSYCHOTHERAPY   AND   GENERAL  PRACTICE.  39 

convictions,  if  once  firmly  formed  and  organized,  whatever  or  how- 
ever be  the  experience  forming  them,  remain  as  a  part  of  our 
personality,  to  functionate  again  and  again  in  the  life  of  the  indi- 
vidual. This  theory  or  hypothesis  is  as  true  regarding  viewpoints 
concerning  methods  of  treating  the  neurasthenic  and  psychas- 
thenic  classes  by  surgical  procedures,  or  by  educational  methods, 
as  in  other  departments  of  experience.  All  of  our  experiences — 
anything  that  we  have  thought,  seen,  heard,  or  felt — tend  to  be 
conserved  by  the  neuron  elements  in  such  a  way  that  they  can  be 
reproduced  in  a  form  approaching  the  original  experience. 

We  could  never  remember  anything  unless  our  experiences  were 
conserved  in  a  way  that  they  could  be  reproduced  in  our  con- 
sciousness by  some  arrangement  of  the  neuron  elements  for  pre- 
serving them.  The  importance  of  this  well-established  fact  of 
physiological  psychology  for  the  scientific  application  of  psycho- 
therapy can  not  be  overestimated.  Moreover,  it  gives  a  scientific 
explanation  for  the  tendency  of  some  departments  of  medicine  and 
surgery  to  overestimate  the  importance  of  their  special  methods, 
and  this  is  particularly  true  regarding  the  employment  of  surgery 
for  the  relief  of  the  minor  structural  abnormality  that  can  almost 
universally  be  found  in  the  neurasthenic  and  psychasthenic. 

Operations  for  "reflex  irritations,"  so-called,  are  no  longer 
justifiable.  It  is  the  general  condition  of  physiological  insuffi- 
ciency or  incompetency  which  needs  to  be  treated.  In  many  such 
cases  a  cure  can  be  effected  only  by  stimulating  and  encouraging 
the  patient's  subconscious  or  involuntary  physiological  processes 
until  he  or  she  can,  by  such  aid,  secure  that  degree  of  physical  and 
mental  stability  sufficient  for  them,  unaided  and  alone,  to  possess 
the  capacity  to  execute  your  advice  concerning  methods  of  living 
so  as  to  maintain  a  degree  of  physical  well-being  commensurate 
with  a  useful  and  happy  life. 

Buchanan,  professor  of  surgery  in  Glasgow  University,  in 
speaking  of  psychological  methods  of  treatment,  is  quoted  from 
an  editorial  in  the  London  Lancet  as  saying:1  ' ' Pathologists  will 
limit  the  area  of  the  process  to  the  province  of  functional  diseases, 


1  Edmund    J.    A.    Rogers:      Medical    Psychology. — Journal    of   the    American    Medical 
Association,   June   12.   1909. 


40  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

but  we  are  not  sure  that  we  are  justified  by  scientific  facts  in  mak- 
ing this  limitation.  It  is  a  fact  in  pathology  that  if  the  functions 
of  an  organ  be  maintained  or  restored,  much  of  the  destructive 
metamorphosis  may  be  arrested,  and  to  some  extent  repaired. 
The  vis  medicatrix  nalurw  is  a  very  potent  factor  in  the  ameliora- 
tion of  disease  if  it  will  be  allowed  to  have  fair  play." 

The  late  Professor  William  James,  in  his  masterly  address  to  the 
American  Philosophical  Association  on  the  ''Energies  of  Men,"  a 
man  who  stands  as  an  intellectual  giant  above  prejudice  and  pre- 
conceived notion,  weighing  each  new  fact  as  it  is  presented,  calls 
attention  to  the  fact  that  in  every  one  there  are  latent  powers 
which,  when  aroused  under  extraordinary  stimuli,  enable  one  to  do 
what  would  have  been  thought  beyond  all  possibility.1 

In  speaking  of  methods  of  arousing  dormant,  subconscious 
energy  in  this  article,  Professor  James  says :  *  "  Suggestion,  espe- 
cially under  hypnosis,  is  now  universally  recognized  as  a  means, 
especially  successful  in  certain  persons,  of  concentrating  conscious- 
ness, and  in  others  of  influencing  their  body  states.  It  throws  into 
gear  energies  of  imagination,  of  will,  and  of  mental  influence  over 
physiological  processes  that  usually  lie  dormant." 

Professor  Edmund  J.  Rodgers,  a  well-known  surgeon,  says: l  "As 
the  disturbance  of  physiological  function  is  the  important  element 
in  the  causation  of  disease,  the  restoration  of  function  may  often 
restore  health;  indeed,  as  resistance  to  infection,  immunity,  etc., 
are  produced  by  the  functional  secretions  of  certain  cells,  we  real- 
ize at  once  the  importance  of  this  question  of  the  control  of  cell 
function. ' ' 

The  success  of  psychotherapy  in  the  general  treatment  of  dis- 
ease is  due  to  the  fact  that  we  can  influence  the  functional  activity 
of  every  cell  in  the  human  body,  and  that  such  can  be  done  the 
author  has  demonstrated  to  the  satisfaction  of  five  thousand  well- 
known  American  physicians. 

According  to  Hammond,  of  New  York,  75  percent  of  the  patients 
that  consult  the  nerve  specialists  are  neurasthenics.  A  well-known 
western  pathologist  remarked  in  the  presence  of  the  writer  that  75 


1  Edmund    J.    A.    Rogers:      Medical    Psychology. — Journal    of    the    American    Medical 
Association.    June    12,    1899. 


PSYCHOTHERAPY    AND   GENERAL   PRACTICE.  41 

percent  of  all  neurasthenics  had  sufficient  degenerative  changes  in 
the  structural  elements  of  the  appendix  to  justify  operation,  and 
he  further  remarked  that  fully  75  percent  of  the  American  people 
are  neurasthenics.  If  he  had  let  his  estimate  include  also  the 
psychasthenics  and  other  persons  living  minus  that  degree  of  re- 
sistive power  in  the  cells  of  their  organism  commensurate  with 
a  normal  healthful  state  of  mind  and  body,  it  is  quite  likely  that 
his  estimate  is  not  too  high.  It  is  from  the  neurasthenic  and 
psychasthenic  class  that  the  great  army  of  tuberculous  victims  are 
being  recruited;  they  furnish  the  great  majority  of  patients  in 
our  surgical  wards;  from  them  pneumonia  reaps  its  greatest 
harvest;  it  is  from  this  class  that  the  stomach  specialist,  the  gyne- 
cologist, and  even  the  general  practitioner  have  their  greatest  fol- 
lowing. What  these  people  need  is  not  medicine  or  surgery,  only 
in  exceptional  cases,  but  education,  knowledge,  and  guidance — 
psychotherapy  pure  and  simple. 

Inherent  within  the  protoplasmic  elements  of  the  human  organ- 
ism is  latent  unrecognized,  available  energy,  that,  by  the  judicious 
employment  of  psychotherapeutic  methods,  can  be  turned  into  self- 
control,  both  consciously  and  subconsciously,  and  by  its  guidance 
and  direction  the  individual  can  achieve  a  quality  of  physical  re- 
sistance commensurate  with  a  condition  of  mental  and  physical 
well-being — a  condition  of  perfect  health.  We  thus  develop  the 
fighting  capacity  of  the  cells  of  the  organism,  and  fortify  the 
individual  against  the  invasion  of  pathogenic  germs  and  other 
etiological  factors  of  disease. 

As  our  comprehension  of  the  scope  and  usefulness  of  psycho- 
therapy becomes  broader,  the  more  do  we  appreciate  its  applica- 
tion as  an  adjunct  to  all  branches  of  professional  work. 

The  surgeon  finds  in  psychotherapy  a  most  efficient  ally.  By 
its  employment  the  dangers  of  ether  and  chloroform  anesthesia  are 
minimized,  and  the  possibilities  of  better  results  from  surgical 
work  enhanced  to  a  marked  degree,  due  to  the  wonderful  conserva- 
tion of  the  patient's  reserved  energy  by  the  employment  of  the 
minimum  amount  of  the  anesthetic. 

The  general  practitioner  finds  in  psychotherapy  an  effectual 
method  of  relieving  the  nervousness  and  insomnia  accompanying 


42  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

any  disease,  acute  or  chronic,  organic  or  psychoneurotic,  and  an 
effectual  method  of  increasing  his  patient's  resistive  powers  by  the 
effect  produced  upon  the  patient's  involuntary  physiological 
processes  as  well. 

Psychotherapy  does  not  seek  to  supplant  the  employment  of 
quinin  in  the  treatment  of  malaria,  of  mercury  in  syphilis,  of  anti- 
toxin in  diphtheria,  or  of  iron  and  arsenic  in  anemic  conditions; 
neither  does  it  seek  to  replace  antiseptics,  eliminants,  and  those 
materia  medica  agencies  which  act  by  chemically  antagonizing  the 
effects  of  morbid  conditions,  but  it  does  enable  the  general  practi- 
tioner to  dispense  with  narcotics,  analgesics,  and  anodynes  to  a 
wonderful  extent,  and  saves  the  patient  from  the  necessity  of  tak- 
ing such  remedies  that  depress  and  retard  functional  activity  and 
lessen  the  resistive  power  of  the  organism  to  diseased  processes. 
In  other  words,  by  its  employment  we  not  only  quiet  nervousness, 
relieve  pain,  and  induce  sleep,  but  bring  about  a  re-establishment 
of  perverted  function,  and  in  this  way  increase  the  fighting 
capacity  of  every  cell  in  the  human  organism.  We  help  the  patient 
to  secure  and  maintain  a  condition  of  health. 

We  have,  as  a  profession,  too  long  neglected  the  higher  evolu- 
tionary factors  of  human  personality.  Man  is  a  being  with  in- 
telligence, desires,  aspirations,  memory,  will,  reason,  perception, 
and  judgment;  these  psychic  qualities  can  not  be  found  with  the 
microscope,  or  the  test  tube,  or  the  dissecting  knife,  but  they  func- 
tionate in  perfect  correlation  with  the  brain  cell  elements,  consti- 
tuting the  dynamics  of  the  human  organism,  and  their  employment 
in  therapeutics  constitutes  the  most  potent  curative  agent  at  our 
command. 

In  all  classes  of  disease,  psychotherapy  finds  an  important  field 
of  application  as  a  therapeutic  adjunct,  for  all  sick  people  need 
to  be  taught  how  to  exercise  their  capacity,  physical  and  mental, 
conscious  and  subconscious,  voluntary  and  involuntary,  in  lines  of 
healthful  thought  and  action,  so  as  to  maintain  a  degree  of  re- 
sistive power  in  the  cells  of  the  physical  organism  commensurate 
with  a  condition  of  health. 

While  we  shall  unceasingly  fight  the  bacterial  origin  of  disease 
with  every  available  resource,  we  can  employ  psychotherapy  to  make 


PSYCHOTHERAPY   AND   GENERAL   PRACTICE.  43 

a  direct  impression  upon  the  brain,  the  organ  which  concentrates 
and  distributes  our  energies,  and,  in  response  to  well-accepted  laws 
of  physiological  psychology,  increase  the  functional  activity  of 
every  cell  contained  in  the  human  body,  and  thus  render  it  less 
vulnerable  to  the  ravages  of  pathogenic  germs  and  other  etiological 
factors  of  disease. 

Then  the  question  which  very  naturally  suggests  itself  in  rela- 
tion to  so  potent  a  curative  agent  is,  Why  is  it  not  employed  more 
generally  by  the  medical  profession?  The  answer  is  they  don't 
know  how  to  employ  it.  The  method  must  of  necessity  appeal  most 
strongly  to  the  highly  educated  classes  of  people,  and,  since  the 
medical  schools  have,  except  in  the  instance  of  a  few  of  our  leading 
universities,  regarded  the  psychotherapeutic  branch  of  medicine 
almost  with  absolute  indifference,  the  people  are  seeking  aid  from 
all  kinds  of  modern  healing  faddists,  who  most  crudely  and  un- 
scientifically make  employment  of  psychic  methods  of  treatment  and 
who  also  ignore  other  rational  therapeutic  expedients.  The  med- 
ical profession  is  being  awakened  from  its  long  sleep  over  its  rights, 
the  people  are  demanding  something  more  substantial  than  the 
usually  recognized  therapeutic  methods,  and  the  day  is  not  far  dis- 
tant when  a  chair  of  psychotherapy  will  be  in  all  first-class  medical 
colleges. 


CHAPTER  III. 
THE    SCIENTIFIC   BASIS   OF   PSYCHOTHERAPY. 

Psychotherapy  exercises  its  potentiality  as  a  therapeutic  re- 
source by  its  influence  upon  human  experience.  It  is  the  con- 
clusion of  monism  that  processes  of  experience  and  brain  proc- 
esses belong  to  the  same  thing,  as  different  aspects  of  its  one  and 
the  same  action,  and  that  this  thing  is  neither  brain  nor  mind,  but 
reality — the  organism  in  function.  A  different  brain  change  oc- 
curs for  every  difference  of  experience. 

In  the  study  of  the  nervous  system  we  find  for  every  dif- 
ference of  experience — whether  of  quality,  intensity,  or  structure — 
a  corresponding  physical  change.  The  end  sought  in  psychothera- 
peutic  treatment  is  to  bring  the  patient  under  the  influence  of 
such  experiences  as  will  produce  such  brain  changes  that  will 
promote  the  normal  functionating  of  the  organism  on  the  one  hand, 
and  that  will  serve  to  adapt  the  individual  to  his  environment  on 
the  other. 

Every  process  of  experience,  state  of  consciousness,  or  condi- 
tion of  mind  is  associated  with  corresponding  organized  physio- 
logical processes  or  physical  changes,  which  are  the  results  of 
such  experiences  upon  the  neuron  .elements.  Psychic  traits,  dis- 
positions, or  qualities  of  personality  or  mentality  are  acquired 
by  experiences  coming  at  some  time  within  the  life  of  the  in- 
dividual, and  they  do  not  exist  apart  from  the  functions  of  the 
nerve  and  brain  cell.  To  think  of  a  quality  of  personality  as 
existing  apart  from  the  functions  of  the  nerve  and  brain  cell 
is  folly.  The  neuron  and  its  activities  constitute  the  basis  of 
all  psychic  action.  Neurosis  and  psychosis  go  hand  in  hand. 
No  neurosis,  no  psychosis;  no  psychosis,  no  neurosis.  That  every 
psychical  phenomenon  has  its  physical  concomitant  is  the  well- 
established  basis  of  physiological  psychology. 

44 


SCIENTIFIC    BASIS   OF   PSYCHOTHERAPY.  45 

We  account  for  the  results  of  psychotherapeutic  treatment  as 
we  account  for  other  processes  of  experience.  Every  process  of 
experience  implies  two  sets  of  conditions — the  occasion  or  the 
.stimulus  on  one  hand,  the  reacting  structure  on  the  other.  The 
occasion  or  stimulus  may  be  mental  or  physical,  and  we  are  about 
to  see  how  a  physical  stimulus  can  be  understood  to  act  upon  the 
mind  and  experience,  and  how  these  can  be  understood  to  act  upon 
the  body.  The  reacting  structure  is  the  mind,  and,  in  assuming 
that  it  has  its  physical  correlate  in  the  structure  of  the  nervous 
system,  there  accordingly  it  is  open  to  description  and  explana- 
tion like  other  physical  structures. 

Our  entire  experience,  and  that  of  the  lower  forms  of  life  as 
well,  presents  a  growing  complexity  of  structure  and  a  deepening 
psychophysical  unity.  Of  the  mind,  as  of  other  things,  there  is 
no  saying  what  it  is  by  itself  apart  from  all  its  connections.  So 
long  as  we  regard  it  in  connection  with  the  functions  of  the 
neuron,  we  are  on  a  scientific  basis. 

We  know  the  mind,  as  we  know  other  things,  by  what  it  does, 
and  we  are  thus  enabled  to  reason  from  cause  to  effect.  What  it 
does  is  to  always  experience — to  both  act  and  react  under  the  in- 
fluence of  innumerable  internal  and  external  stimuli;  and  what- 
ever it  does,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  designedly  or  uninten- 
tionally, must  be  revealed  in  experience,  just  as  the  most  invisible 
works  in  nature  are  revealed  in  sensation. 

The  nervous  system  faithfully  conserves  and  reproduces  its 
experiences,  and  all  experiences,  however  and  whenever  formed, 
if  conserved,  are  a  part  of  ourselves  and  belong  to  us  as  an  es- 
sential part  of  our  personality.  Try  as  we  will,  we  can  not  get 
away  from  the  influence  of  past  experiences  in  the  determination 
of  what  we  are  today.  We  can  modify,  change,  or  neutralize  the 
effect  of  our  experiences  to  a  considerable  extent,  but  we  can  not 
destroy  them.  Every  experience  retains  the  right  to  express  its 
influence  in  our  later  life.  Conserved  as  they  are  by  the  nervous 
system,  they  represent  in  reality  living,  active  forces  operating  for 
the  good  or  harm  of  the  individual. 

The  experience  of  our  forgotten  childhood  and  youth,  even 
those  of  infancy,  lives  actively  in  our  adult  years,  and  contributes 


46  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

to  the  formation  of  that  variously  named  portion  of  our  mental 
lives  of  which  we  are  not  consciously  aware.  The  study  of  this 
portion  of  our  mental  lives — repressed,  yet  active — constitutes  one 
of  the  most  interesting  phases  of  psychotherapeutic  treatment,  the 
importance  of  which  is  not  justly  appreciated  at  the  present  time. 

While  inheritance  plays  an  important  part,  and  varies  within 
wide  limits,  in  making  us  what  we  are  in  mind  and  body,  the 
most  important  factors  are  the  influences  to  which  we  are  subjected 
afterbirth.  This  is  not  to  depreciate  the  importance  of  what  we 
bring  into  the  world  as  a  hereditary  endowment,  but  to  emphasize 
the  importance  of  education  and  training  after  we  are  born. 

If  we  would  change  the  mental  and  physical  constitutions  of 
an  individual,  bring  him  under  the  influence  of  such  experiences 
as  will  bring  about  such  modifications  or  changes  as  are 
desired.  All  experience,  however  and  whenever  acquired,  is  edu- 
cation, and,  whether  its  influence  is  for  good  or  ill,  it  should  be 
given  a  broader  meaning  than  is  usually  accorded  it.  While  the 
influence  of  all  experiences  of  the  past  are  ever  active  in  the 
various  functions  of  the  psychophysical  organism  of  man,  it  is 
never  too  late  to  bring  him  under  such  experiences  as  will  modify, 
influence,  change,  inhibit,  or  encourage  the  functions  of  the  nerv- 
ous system  set  into  operation  by  previous  experiences.  To  bring 
about  such  changes  as  will  result  in  the  upbuilding  of  the 
physiological  and  mental  constitutions  of  our  patients,  where  such 
help  is  needed,  is  the  function  of  psychotherapy. 

Miinsterberg  remarks:  "Theoretically,  the  field  in  which  psy- 
chotherapy may  work  on  both  mental  manifestations  and  bodily 
functions  is  a  large  and  interesting  one,  but  it  is  still  open  to 
little  real  understanding.  The  explanation  has  essentially  to  rest 
on  the  acceptance  of  a  given  physiological  apparatus.  A  certain 
psychophysical  excitement  produces  by  existing  nerve  connections 
a  certain  effect,  for  instance,  on  the  blood  vessels  or  on  the  glands 
of  a  certain  region,  or  on  a  certain  lower  nervous  center.  That 
such  an  apparatus  exists,  the  physiological  experiment  with  the 
employment  of  suggestion  with  persons  in  the  normal  waking  state 
or  in  hypnosis  can  easily  demonstrate." 

By  the  employment  of  psychotherapy  we  simply  make  use  of 


SCIENTIFIC    BASIS   OF   PSYCHOTHERAPY.  47 

the  normal  mechanisms  of  the  physiological  organism;  we  can  do 
nothing  more,  we  should  do  nothing  less.  "That  ideas  work  on 
the  lower  centers  of  our  central  nervous  system,  and  bring  into  re- 
newed activity  centers  which  regulate  the  actions  of  our  muscles, 
blood  vessels,  and  glands,  must  be  accepted  as  the  machinery  of 
our  physiological  theory. ' ' x  The  connection  of  such  theories  with 
purely  physical  facts  is  given  by  our  every-day  processes  of  ex- 
perience, and  is  evident  to  the  most  casual  observer. 

In  his  elucidation  of  the  psychological  principles  and  field  of 
psychotherapy,  presented  before  the  American  Therapeutic 
Society  at  the  annual  meeting  in  New  Haven,  Professor  Morton 
Prince  tells  us :  2 

"It  is  a  law  that  associated  ideas,  feelings,  emotions,  sensa- 
tions, movements,  and  visceral  functions  of  whatever  kind  tend, 
after  constant  repetition  or  when  accompanied  by  strong  emotion 
of  feeling  tones,  and  under  other  conditions,  to  become  linked 
together  into  a  system  or  group  in  such  fashion  that  the  stimula- 
tion of  one  element  of  the  group  stimulates  the  activity  of  the 
rest  of  the  group.  Such  a  group  is  conveniently  called  a  'com- 
plex,' and  I  shall  hereafter  refer  to  it  as  such.  This  tendency  to 
the  linking  of  functions  obtains,  whether  the  mental  and  physio- 
logical processes  when  linked  form  a  complex  which  subserves  the 
well-being  of  the  organism  and  adapts  the  individual  to  his  en- 
vironment, or  whether  they  form  one  which  does  not  subserve  the 
well-being  of  the  individual,  but  misadapts  him  to  his  environ- 
ment. In  the  former  case  the  complex  is  called  normal;  in  the 
latter,  abnormal.  This  is  only  another  aspect  of  the  well-accepted 
principle  that  pathological  processes  are  normal  processes  func- 
tionating under  altered  conditions.  Both  are  the  expression  of  one 
and  the  same  mechanism. ' ' 

Professor  Prince  further  says: 

"The  linking  of  function  may  be  almost  entirely  of  ideas,  as 
is  expressed  by  the  well-known  psychological  law  of  association 
of  ideas.  Its  pathological  manifestations  we  see  in  so-called  fixed 
ideas  or  obsessions.  We  see  it  also  exemplified  within  normal 


1  Hugo   Miinsterberg. 

2  Journal    of   Abnormal   Psychology,    June-July,    1909. 


48  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

limits  in  so-called  moods,  when  certain  large  systems  of  ideas, 
accompanied  by  strong  emotion  tones,  occupy  the  mental  field 
to  the  exclusion  of  other  systems  which  find  it  difficult  to  take 
the  possession  of  the  field  of  consciousness.  When  such  moods 
are  developed  and  intensified  to  an  extreme  degree,  we  have  veri- 
table pathological  alterations  of  personality,  and  even,  it  may 
be,  multiple  personality.  But  in  moods  besides  association  we 
meet  with  another  principle  in  an  exaggerated  form — namely,  dis- 
sociation. 

"The  linking,  again,  may  be  of  physiological  processes,  as  ex- 
emplified by  synergesis  of  muscular  movements.  This  is  seen  in 
the  linked  combination  of  muscles  used  in  writing,  piano  playing, 
and  skilled  use  of  tools  and  implements  of  games. 

".Unless  nervous  processes  could  be  artificially  linked  into 
coaptive  synergistic  systems  adapted  to  a  purpose,  education  in 
any  field  would  be  impossible.  Intellectual  acquisitions,  from  the 
repetition  of  the  alphabet  to  a  complete  knowledge  of  a  language 
or  a  science,  and  physiological  acquisitions,  from  the  use  of  a  tool 
to  the  mastery  of  the  piano  or  the  vocal  apparatus,  would  be  not 
only  unknown,  but  would  be  unthinkable.  The  education  of  the 
mind  and  body  depends  upon  the  artificial  synthesizing  of  func- 
tions into  a  complex  adapted  to  an  end  or  useful  purpose.  By  the 
same  principle  functions  may  be  synthesized  by  education  into  a 
complex  which  does  not  serve  a  useful  purpose,  but  rather  is  harm- 
ful to  the  individual.  When  this  is  the  case,  we  call  it  abnormal 
or  a  psychoneurosis. " 

It  is  important  to  remember  that  psychic  elements  are  cor- 
related to  the  physiology  of  the  brain  just  as  physical  processes 
are  correlated  to  cerebral  excitations.  Physiological  psychology 
deals  with  those  psychical  phenomena  to  which  concomitant  physio- 
logical processes  of  the  brain  correspond.  Psychotherapy  is  but 
the  application  of  well-demonstrated  principles  of  physiological 
psychology  for  therapeutic  purposes.  It  is  not  necessary  for  us 
to  deduce  from  the  conception  of  psychical  life  the  possibility  of 
applying  mathematical  computations  to  that  field  of  science. 
Physiological  psychology  has,  however,  established  important  propo- 
sitions capable  of  mathematical  statement.  We  have  become  ac- 


SCIENTIFIC   BASIS   OF   PSYCHOTHERAPY.  49 

quainted  with  a  series  of  psychophysical  laws;  psychophysics  has 
therefore  become  a  component  part  of  the  science  of  psycho- 
therapy. As  physicians,  we  are  interested  only  with  that  branch 
of  empirical  psychology  designated  as  physiological  psychology, 
which  embraces  the  conception  of  psychical  processes  with  con- 
comitant cerebral  processes. 

We  are  at  times  confronted  with  the  question,  How  do  we 
recognize  phenomena  which  we  designate  as  psychical?  All  and 
only  the  phenomena  which  are  imparted  to  our  consciousness  are 
psychical.  That  which  is  without  us  in  space  and  time,  which  we 
assign  as  the  cause  of  our  sensations,  is  material.  The  object 
whose  existence  we  accept  as  external  to  us  when  we  have  the 
visual  sensation  of  the  thing  seen  by  the  eyes  is  material.  The 
sensation  of  sight  itself  is  psychical  in  so  far  as  it  concerns  our 
consciousness.  Apparently  "psychical"  and  "conscious"  are 
wholly  identical,  for  we  can  form  no  idea  at  all  of  what  an  un- 
conscious sensation  may  be;  but  upon  closer  investigation  we 
shall  find  that  every  conscious  sensation  has,  at  least  to  all  but 
a  few  of  us,  an  unconscious  effect.  Concomitant  physical  proc- 
esses corresponding  to  the  psychical  processes,  the  process  of  ex- 
perience, are  conserved  by  neuron  elements  and  become  in  the 
future  a  part  of  our  personality.  The  more  intense  the  psychical 
process,  the  more  active  is  the  functionating  of  the  nervous  mechan- 
ism conserving  the  experience.  Concomitant  psychical  processes 
appear  and  reappear,  strengthened  or  weakened  by  similar  expe- 
riences, in  response  to  material  excitations  of  the  nervous  mechan- 
isms conserving  such  experiences.1 

Most  certainly  "psychical"  and  "conscious"  are  primarily 
identical,  but  the  changes  wrought  upon  the  neuron  elements  as 
the  result  of  all  experience  may  functionate  again  and  again,  though 
the  individual  may  be  consciously  unaware  of  such  effects,  and 
these  are  very  aptly  designated  as  "subconscious  psychical  proc- 
esses." They  are  the  physiological  residue  of  passing  mental 
states  that  are  retained  by  the  neuron  elements,  and  functionate 
as  often  in  the  life  of  the  individual  as  they  are  aroused  by  sim- 


1  Theodor    Ziehen:      Physiological    Psychology. 


50  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

ilar  experiences.  They  are  brought  to  life,  as  it  were,  through 
the  association  of  ideas. 

All  of  our  experiences — everything  that  we  have  thought,  seen, 
heard,  or  felt — are  conserved  in  such  a  way  that  they  can  be 
reproduced  in  a  form  approaching  that  of  the  original  experience. 
Memory  is  but  the  impress  conserved  by  our  brain  cells  and 
reproduced  by  ideas  suggesting  the  original  experience. 

"Through  the  sensory  nerves  the  brain  receives,  through  the 
motor  nerves  the  brain  directs,  and  this  whole  arch  from  the 
sense  organs  through  the  sensory  nerves,  through  the  brain, 
through  the  motor  nerves  and  finally  to  the  muscles,  is  one  uni- 
fied apparatus  of  which  no  part  can  be  left  out.  The  necessary 
relation  between  the  sensory  and  motor  parts  should  ever  be  kept 
in  mind,  for  there  can  be  no  sensory  process  which  does  not  go 
over  into  motor  response.  The  whole  mental  life  thus  becomes  the 
accompaniment  of  a  steady  process  of  transmitting  impressions 
and  memories  into  reactions. ' ' x  Miinsterberg  has  well  said  that 
suggestions  which  are  not  suggestions  of  actions  are,  without  ex- 
ception, suggestions  of  belief.  Actions  and  beliefs  are  the  only 
possible  material  of  any  suggestion — the  tool  of  psychotherapy. 
Psychotherapy  simply  makes  employment  of  the  normal  mechan- 
ism of  the  mind  and  body — of  the  physiological  machinery  al- 
ready provided.  By  the  employment  of  suggestion  we  bring  about 
a  restitution  of  the  disordered  functions.  Suggestion  can  act 
only  as  a  therapeutic  agent  by  stimulating  the  physiological 
mechanism;  it  can  not  create  anything  new,  or  do  anything  that 
is  not  in  accord  with  the  laws  of  the  nervous  system. 

The  first  beginnings  of  a  nervous  process  are  to  be  found 
where  animal  anatomy  first  meets  with  a  nervous  apparatus  in 
the  ascending  scale  of  animal  life.  A  certain  capacity  for  nerv- 
ous processes  are  recognizable  in  the  motor  activity  of  even  the 
simplest  ameba.  We  can  imagine  a  monad  to  be  placed  before  us 
and  a  grain  of  sand  to  be  brought  in  contact  with  it.  Proto- 
plasmic masses,  the  so-called  pseudopodia,  stretch  themselves  out, 
envelop  the  grain,  and  incorporate  it  within  the  body  of  the  main 
mass.  In  this  process  there  are  exhibited  those  features  which  we 


1  Hugo  Munsterberg. 


SCIENTIFIC   BASIS   OF   PSYCHOTHERAPY.  51 

recognize  as  the  essentials  of  nervous  function — viz.,  (1)  a  sensible 
stimulation,  and  (2)  a  reaction;  in  fact,  a  motor  effect  that  is 
by  no  means  explicable  to  merely  physical  laws.  Hence,  wherever 
we  find  contractile  substance,  the  conditions  of  nerve  life  are  al- 
ready present.1  . 

This  is  true  though  only  one  cell  be  the  seat  of  the  reception  of 
the  stimulus  and  the  motor  reaction.  In  this  way  the  development 
of  the  nervous  system  begins,  the  gradual  accomplishment  of  which 
—in  the  jellyfish,  for  instance — might  be  conceived  as  follows: 
Here  is  an  animal  composed  of  many  cells,  and  any  given  stimulus 
with  which  it  is  brought  in  contact  is  constantly  transmitted  as 
an  excitation  within  the  animal  along  the  path  offering  the  least 
resistance.  Thus  the  excitations  will  come  to  be  transmitted  only 
along  fixed  paths,  the  so-called  paths  of  conduction.  According  to 
a  fundamental  law  of  biology,  the  constant  execution  of  definite 
functions  also  gradually  effects  certain  structural  modifications. 
Accordingly  these  paths  of  conduction  become  anatomically  differ- 
entiated from  their  surroundings,  and  the  nerves  develop  into  in- 
dependent anatomical  tissues.  Next  is  developed  the  so-called 
ganglion  cell,  a  mediating  organ  between  the  sensory  conductor 
receiving  the  stimulation  and  the  motor  conductor  imparting  con- 
traction. When  the  stimulus  acting  upon  the  nerve  end  reaches 
a  ganglion  cell,  and  is  transmitted  by  the  latter  along  a  new  nerve 
path  to  contractile  masses,  so  as  to  impart  motion,  the  entire  process 
is  designated  as  reflex  action.  Reflex  action  is  the  simplest  nervous 
process  of  which  we  have  any  knowledge.  By  reflex  action  in 
higher  animals  we  understand  a  motion  imparted  by  a  stimulus 
upon  a  sensitive  periphery.  A  prick  of  the  sole  of  the  foot  is  an- 
swered by  a  withdrawal  of  the  foot  by  flexion  and,  to  some  extent, 
by  contraction  of  the  toes.  In  this  case  the  essential  anatomical 
elements  of  the  process  are  thoroughly  known.  In  the  sole  of  the 
foot  are  the  terminations  of  sensory  nerves.  These  are  irritated, 
and  conduct  the  stimulus,  or  excitation,  to  a  sensory  ganglion  cell  in 
the  spinal  cord.  This  cell  sends  the  excitation  received  along  to 
the  motor  ganglion  cells,  which  in  turn  transmit  the  impulse  again 
toward  the  periphery  and  generate  muscular  activity. 


1  Theodor  Ziehcn :      Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Physiological  Psychology,  page  6. 


52  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

Whether  a  concomitant  psychical  process  corresponds  to  the 
nervous  process  concerned  in  reflex  acts,  our  consciousness  alone 
is  able  to  decide.  However  this  may  be,  the  biological  elements 
concerned  in  the  process  possess  and  exercise  their  own  psychic 
potentialities,  whether  recognized  by  our  consciousness  or  not,  and 
those  psychical  processes  which  correspond  to  physiological  func- 
tions of  which  we  are  consciously  unaware  may  very  appropriately 
be  designated  as  subconscious  psychical  or  mental  processes,  which 
have  their  own  physical  correlative.  Hence,  the  employment  of 
the  terms  "conscious"  and  "subconscious"  as  applying  to  the  or- 
ganized physiological  processes  of  the  higher  and  lower  neuron 
systems  respectively,  whether  accompanied  by  consciousness  or  un- 
consciousness, or  controlled  by  volition  or  automatic  function. 

Every  process  of  experience  involves  millions  of  such  elements. 
The  effort  to  explain  the  results  of  psychotherapeutic  measures  in- 
volves a  complex  mechanism,  which  belongs  to  a  system  of  reactions 
of  which  all  parts  of  the  body  are  in  steady  correlation.  The  influ- 
ence exerted  by  the  stimuli  of  ideas  upon  the  physiological  processes 
of  the  body,  and  the  practical  application  of  this  influence  as  a 
therapeutic  agent,  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  developments  of 
modern  medicine. 

But  it  should  be  definitely  understood  that  "ideas"  given  as  a 
therapeutic  measure  must  be  practical,  and  not  given  merely  to 
influence  morbid  psychic  and  nervous  conditions.  Such  measures 
are  being  recognized  by  able  physicians  throughout  the  entire 
world.  Crothers  tells  us :  "If  the  physician  had  been  a  consultant 
on  all  matters  of  mind  and  body,  there  would  have  been  no  Chris- 
tian science  and  Emanuel  movement.  There  would  be  no  proprie- 
tary medicines  bought  and  sold  for  every  imaginary  condition. 
Epidemics  and  endemics  would  have  been  checked  at  the  beginning, 
and  the  great  questions  of  health  would  have  been  settled  in  the 
home  by  the  family  physician  before  they  attained  prominence  that 
required  public  recognition.  The  trained  physician  who  becomes 
an  adviser  to  every  man  and  woman  is  the  ideal  to  which  practical 
medicine  is  rapidly  moving. ' ' l 


the   Future.-New  York 


SCIENTIFIC   BASIS   OF   PSYCHOTHERAPY.  53 

Howard  A.  Kelly  remarks : l  "  During  convalescence  the  physi- 
cian must  avail  himself  of  various  methods  of  psychic  stimulation 
and  re-education,  and  here  his  knowledge  of  the  world  and  of  the 
men  and  women  in  it,  their  hopes,  their  desires,  and  their  failings, 
will  be  most  helpful  to  him.  £_He  must  consider  how  long  to  keep 
the  attention  of  his  patient  focused  upon  her  cure,  and  how  to 
prevent  her  from  giving  herself  unhealthy  suggestions.  In  other 
words,  he  must  teach  her  so  to  train  her  attention  that  the  action 
of  the  mind  becomes  healthy,  and  that  it  ceases  to  dwell  upon  the 
abnormal.  He  must  excite  in  his  patient  the  desire  to  get  well,  and 
must  convince  her  as  the  treatment  progresses  that  she  is  in  reality 
getting  well.  He  must  teach  her  the  importance  of  overcoming 
little  difficulties,  assuring  her  that,  as  she  does  one  thing  after  an- 
other to  which  she  may  be  disinclined,  she  will  acquire  an  ever- 
increasing  power  of  self-control,  and  that  sooner  or  later  her  self- 
mastery  will  be  regained// 

"On  the  emotional  side,  a  prolonged  training  is  often  necessary 
in  order  to  get  rid  of  abnormal  fears,  anxiety,  and  apprehension. 
The  patient  should  be  taught  to  cultivate  the  useful  and  invigorat- 
ing emotions ;  she  should  be  taught  the  dangers  of  excessive  emotion 
of  any  kind,  and  the  great  harm  of  indulging  in  such  passions  as 
anger,  hate,  and  fear.  The  positive  rather  than  the  negative  side 
should  be  followed.  Faith,  hope,  and  love  should  be  encouraged, 
and  then  worry,  fear,  and  despair  will  disappear  of  themselves. 
Finally,  work,  physical  and  mental,  must  be  undertaken,  for  in  a 
properly  directed  occupation-therapy  lies  the  greatest  hope  for 
making  the  cure  permanent.  These  nervous  women  have  to  be 
educated  gradually  how  to  take  up  their  work,  and  the  physician's 
ingenuity  will  be  greatly  taxed  in  order  to  decide  as  to  the  partic- 
ular physical  and  mental  occupations  suited  to  the  individual  cases 
coming  under  his  care ;  one  patient  will  be  benefited  by  gardening, 
another  by  some  active  mental  pursuit.  In  all  cases  the  program 
of  the  day  should  be  carefully  arranged,  and  the  patient  should 
be  encouraged  to  follow  it  closely.  The  work  should  be  chosen  in 
accordance  with  the  ability  and  previous  training  and  occupation 
of  the  patient.  It  should  be  interesting  to  her  and  should  be  such 
as  to  be  capable  of  giving  expression  to  her  better  self." 


1  Medical   Gyuecology,   pages   224,    560. 


54  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

Kelly  further  says : 

' '  Our  best  neurologists  today  are  making  large  use  of  hypnotism 
and  suggestion  in  inducing  sleep.  To  effect  anything  by  this 
means,  the  physician  must  know  his  patient  well  enough  to  inspire 
confidence  and  must  engage  her  aid  in  a  common  cause,  operating 
against  a  common  enemy — insomnia.  The  attitude  of  expectation 
thus  created  must  be  enhanced  by  the  external  conditions  of  the 
moment,  such  as  retiring  at  a  fixed  hour,  quieting  the  mind,  and 
composedly  awaiting  the  advent  of  the  expected  guest — sleep." 

In  referring  to  the  treatment  of  chronic  Bright 's  disease,  Dr. 
Kobert  Ortner,  of  the  University  of  Vienna,  says : 1 

"Especially  in  the  interstitial  variety,  so  much  of  success — of 
whatever  hygienic,  climatic,  dietetic,  and  medicinal  therapy  is  insti- 
tuted— depends  upon  the  establishment  and  maintenance  of  a  nor- 
mal psychic  and  nervous  condition  with  a  cheerful,  hopeful  frame 
of  mind,  that  we  as  physicians  must  not  fail  to  do  our  part  in  this 
most  important  branch.  I  encourage  them  by  citing  other  cases  that 
are  living,  working,  and  happy." 

Psychotherapy  has  a  definite  field  of  its  own,  as  well  as  being  an 
adjunct  in  all  classes  of  professional  work,  and  it  should  never  be 
considered  as  antagonistic  to  other  therapeutic  expedients.  When 
it  is  skillfully  and  judiciously  employed,  it  is  unquestionably  one 
of  the  most  important  therapeutic  resources  at  our  command,  the 
value  of  which  we  are  appreciating  more  and  more  as  our  experience 
with  its  employment  becomes  broader. 

Donley  has  well  said : 2  "  When  we  have  apprehended  that  psy- 
chotherapy means  nothing  but  methods  whereby  we  may  bring 
about  a  cure  of  the  mind,  or  by  or  through  the  mind,  we  not  un- 
naturally inquire  what  is  the  ultimate  purpose  that  these  methods 
subserve.  This  purpose  may  be  stated  in  one  word — re-education. 
To  mediate  between  theory  and  life  is  the  highest  privilege,  as  well 
as  the  most  difficult  and  perplexing  task,  of  the  psychotherapist. 
Whatever  the  proximate  object  of  his  endeavor,  the  fundamental 
aim  of  his  labor  is,  and  must  always  continue  to  be,  to  make  the 
theories  of  science  bear  fruit  in  life  and  conduct.  Every  psycho- 

1  Potter:     Ortner's   Treatment    of   Internal    Diseases. 

-  John  E.  Donlev.  M.D. :  Psychotherapy  and  Re-Education. — Journal  of  Abnormal 
Psychology,  April-May,  1911. 


SCIENTIFIC   BASIS   OF   PSYCHOTHERAPY.  55 

therapeutic  procedure,  of  whatever  sort,  has  in  view  this  definite 
end — to  bring  about  a  readjustment,  some  sought-for  and  desir- 
able reorganization  of  the  individual  in  respect  of  his  inner  and 
outer  experience;  to  assist  him,  as  well  as  may  be,  in  his  efforts, 
hitherto  frustrated,  toward  the  consummation  of  a  more  harmonious 
adaptation  to  his  social  and  physical  environment;  in  a  word,  to 
place  at  his  disposal  those  principles  of  modern  psychology  which, 
rightly  used,  will  not  improbably  facilitate  and  further  his  psychic 
re-education.  The  situation  is  in  nowise  different  from  that  which 
confronts  the  teacher  of  normal  minds,  except  in  this,  that  the 
psychotherapist  is,  as  a  rule,  engaged  upon  problems  whose  solutions 
are  freighted  with  an  immediate  and  greater  moiety  of  happiness 
and  misery." 

By  the  employment  of  psychotherapeutic  principles  the  great  ma- 
jority of  chronic  invalids  can  be  trained  up  to  a  state  of  healthy 
mental  and  physical  vigor,  and  by  this  achieve  a  self-reliance  that 
can  come  to  a  patient  only  where  such  measures  are  employed. 
The  patient  is  taught  how  to  use  his  capacity — of  both  mind  and 
body,  conscious  and  subconscious — and  to  acquire  a  degree  of  self- 
reliance  that  proves  a  valuable  asset  through  life. 

What  are  possibilities  with  any  therapeutic  resource  are,  of 
course,  not  actualities  in  all  patients  alike,  dependent  upon  an 
inherited  quality  of  nerve  and  brain  plasm,  modified  by  education 
and  environment.  We  must  take  our  patients  as  they  are,  and 
make  the  best  of  each  according  to  his  or  her  individual  limita- 
tions or  possibilities. 

Psychotherapy  has  found  a  response  with  the  more  enlightened 
spirit  of  our  age,  and  by  its  employment  we  not  only  treat  the 
patient,  but  by  the  very  application  of  these  methods  instill  into 
him  or  her  facts  and  principles  that  serve  to  qualify  them  to  be- 
come master  of  their  own  potentialities,  be  they  much  or  little, 
weak  or  strong. 

Miinsterberg  remarks:  "In  recent  decades  the  thorough  work 
of  scientific  physicians  has  developed  a  psychotherapy  of  con- 
siderable extent  and  of  indubitable  usefulness,  far  removed  from 
the  simultaneous  efforts  of  the  churches  and  the  popular  mental 
healing  cures.  A  number  of  eminent  men  in  all  countries  have 


56  SUGGESTIVE  THERAPEUTICS. 

tested  the  methods  and  have  published  results.  But  the  curious 
side  of  it  is  that  all  this  is  essentially  a  movement  of  leaders, 
while  the  masses  of  the  profession  hesitate  to  follow.  ...  It 
is  as  if  the  prescription  of  the  modern  chemical  drugs  were  con- 
fined to  some  leading  scholars  of  the  country,  while  thousands 
abstained  from  it  in  their  office  work  and  their  family  practice. 
In  reality,  psychotherapy  ought  to  be  used  by  every  physician, 
as  it  fits  perfectly  the  needs  of  the  whole  suffering  community. 
Its  almost  exceptional  use  in  the  hands  of  a  few  scholarly  leaders 
deprives  it  of  its  true  importance.  It  is  the  village  doctor  who 
needs  psychotherapy  much  more  than  he  needs  the  knife  and  the 
electric  current." 


CHAPTER  IV. 
THE   GENERAL  UTILITY  OF   SUGGESTION. 

This  is  an  age  of  dynamics.  It  is  a  day  when  all  minds  are 
turned  in  search  of  the  laws  that  govern  hidden  forces.  The  in- 
telligent comprehension  and  utilization  of  nature's  forces,  through 
compliance  with  the  laws  that  govern  them,  has  revolutionized  the 
external  world  of  travel,  manufacture,  and  communication.  Step 
by  step  humanity  is  entering  upon  the  field  of  finer  forces. 
Electricity,  a  force  unseen,  through  intelligent  compliance  with  the 
laws  that  govern  it,  is  utilized  as  never  before  for  the  comfort 
and  happiness  of  man.  Man's  progress  in  the  scale  of  evolution 
has  been  just  in  that  degree  that  he  has  utilized  forces  governed 
by  laws  not  previously  understood  and  has  appropriated  them  for 
his  happiness  and  welfare. 

We  are  in  the  world  for  growth,  and  to  help  to  raise  humanity 
in  the  scale  of  evolution  is  the  only  worthy  purpose  of  all  human 
endeavor  and  achievement.  Each  individual  represents  just  so 
much  energy,  and  by  his  use  or  abuse  of  this  inherent  life  force 
is  he  a  factor  for  good  or  evil. 

As  physicians,  we  are  on  the  threshold  of  a  great  awakening 
to  a  conscious  realization  of  a  higher  conception  of  our  duty 
toward  our  patients,  and  of  the  potency  of  our  influence  upon 
determining  their  present  and  future  health  and  happiness.  By 
degrees,  step  by  step — slowly,  but  surely — are  we  getting  away 
from  the  superstition  that  has  so  long  darkened  our  conception  of 
life.  From  the  time  that  the  little  ameba  began  to  develop  by 
sucking  into  its  jelly-self  nutriment  from  the  water  around  it; 
from  the  time  that  its  little  jelly  cousin,  the  moneron,  put  out 
his  first  pseudopodium,  there  began  the  journey  toward  and  the 
feeling  out  after  a  higher  conception  of  life.  Long  and  tedious 
has  been  the  way — slow  and  painful  has  been  the  ascent 
from  darkness  to  light.  The  law  of  evolution  in  even  the  lower 

57 


58  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

realm  or  sphere  of  life  has  never  mocked  an  ameba  or 
a  moneron.  The  faculties  back  of  the  ameba  and  moneron  realm, 
whereby  they  found  what  they  reached  out  after,  were  no 
more  natural  than  those  that  move  us  to  seek  a  higher  con- 
ception of  life.  The  infant  reached  out  hand  and  mouth  for 
food;  it  was  there.  So,  the  real  man,  the  higher  self,  which  is 
here  in  a  material  nursery,  is  in  the  infant  stage  of  existence — 
it  seems  to  manifest  itself  in  a  truer  sense.  If  the  little  ameba 
was  not  mocked,  shall  he  be? 

In  the  light  of  present-day  knowledge  we  are  warranted  in 
having  a  high  degree  of  optimism  in  regard  to  the  laws  of  heredity 
and  training.  The  time  was  when  there  was  an  overpowering 
sense  of  the  absolute  dependence  of  phenomena  of  all  sorts,  in- 
cluding the  supreme  one  of  will,  upon  visible,  tangible,  material 
elements  in  the  physical  body  and  its  activities,  but  now  there  is 
a  growing  consciousness  of  self-activity  and  freedom.  Pessimism 
as  a  philosophy  has  not  the  sway  that  it  had  yesterday,  and  we 
are  dwelling  more  and  more  upon  the  importance  of  education 
and  training  as  a  basis  of  character  and  health.  We  now  realize 
that  the  mind,  as  the  result  of  education  and  training,  contributes 
to  the  development  of  the  body  as  much  as  the  body  contributes 
to  the  growth  and  development  of  the  mind;  that  mind  and  body 
are  inseparable,  both  constituting  a  manifestation  of  the  real  self 
in  action,  and  that  in  every  human  being  there  exists  an  inherent 
quality  of  psychophysical  force,  capable  of  a  high  degree  of  de- 
velopment, which  he  must  use  for  his  welfare  and  happiness. 

A  better  understanding  of  the  laws  governing  the  development 
of  the  power  that  we  are  all  using,  either  ignorantly  or  intelli- 
gently, should  be  the  means  of  helping  each  individual  to  better 
use  his  life  forces  for  the  advancement  of  self  and  for  the  good 
of  others,  aiding  them  in  the  struggle  for  the  achievement  of  hap- 
piness and  health — the  greatest  incentives  to  the  activities  of  the 
human  race. 

It  is  now  clearly  established  by  the  advanced  thinkers,  who 
have  gotten  over  the  stunned  and  stunning  stages  of  the  light  that 
evolution  has  shed  upon  us,  that  some  individuals  of  all  races 
have  not  reached  the  point  of  development  where  the  self-con- 


GENERAL    UTILITY   OF   SUGGESTION.  59 

scious  ego  is  capable  of  taking  their  lives  into  their  own  hands. 
Their  heredity,  environment,  and  education  have  not  been  such 
as  to  produce  normally  developed  personalities,  and  it  is  not  any 
fault  of  their  own  that  such  is  the  case.  Such  people  will  be  the 
helpless  dependents  upon  others  to  think  and  do  for  them  as 
long  as  they  live.  These  children  of  fate  are  everywhere  in 
evidence.  They  feel  the  need  of  something,  and,  like  helpless 
worms,  are  driven  in  the  direction  of  least  resistance.  There  can 
be  no  higher  function  of  a  physician  than  that  of  getting  such 
patients  who  come  to  us  for  aid  to  act  upon  an  idea  or  a  series 
of  ideas  and  execute  them  consciously  or  subconsciously,  in  order 
that  their  lives  may  be  brought  under  its  influence,  and  the  in- 
dividual be  so  adapted  to  his  environment  that  he  is  not  only 
qualified  to  meet  the  exigencies  incident  to  the  struggle  for  ex- 
istence, but  that  also  health  and  happiness  be  maintained. 

The  universe  was  made  for  man,  and  all  of  nature's  forces  are 
beneficent  and  are  placed  here  for  his  utilization.  By  intelligent 
conformity  to  nature's  laws,  health  and  happiness  may  be  main- 
tained; but  for  violation  of  or  opposition  to  nature's  laws,  disease, 
impotency,  or  premature  death  are  the  penalty. 

In  the  study  of  the  laws  governing  the  formation  of  viewpoints, 
beliefs,  convictions,  psychic  traits,  dispositions,  and  mental  habits, 
suggestion,  or  an  idea  aroused  in  the  mind  of  the  individual  by 
impressions  from  without,  or  conveyed  by  spoken  words  from  one 
mind  to  another,  is  found  to  be  the  dominant  factor.  Moreover, 
we  find  that  suggestion  is  a  powerful  factor  in  developing  the  mind 
and  in  determining  the  functions  of  the  physical  organism,  as  is 
illustrated  by  its  employment  on  persons  in  the  state  of  normal 
waking  consciousness  or  in  the  hypnotic  state. 

Perhaps  no  one  subject  has  been  so  much  abused  as  the  subject 
of  suggestion,  employed  with  or  without  the  induction  of  the 
hypnotic  state,  by  the  very  class  of  people  who  use  this  all-potent 
factor,  which  they  either  ignorantly  or  maliciously  deny,  as  the 
force  by  which  most  of  their  results  as  curative  measures  are 
obtained.  I  refer  to  Christian  scientists,  osteopaths,  Weltmerites, 
faith  healers,  and  such  like.  To  point  out  the  danger  which  at- 
tends the  ignorant  use  of  suggestion,  both  with  and  without  the 


60  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

aid  of  hypnotism,  as  well  as  the  possibility  of  benefit  that  may 
accrue  from  its  intelligent  use  as  an  adjunct  in  the  practice  of 
medicine,  is  my  purpose. 

'""ThlTuse  of  suggestion  is  but  the  art  of  employing  spoken  words 
for  the  purpose  of  persuading  an  individual  to  act  upon  or  exe- 
cute an  idea  or  a  series  of  ideas,  either  consciously  or  subcon- 
sciously. A  suggestion  is  an  impression  conveyed  by  any  means 
whatsoever  from  one  mind  to  another,  or  the  impress  received  by 
th^Jwiman  brain  by  impressions  from  without. 

When  we  remember  that  the  nervous  system  faithfully  con- 
serves and  reproduces  its  impressions  or  experiences,  then  only 
do  we  realize  the  significance  and  importance  of  a  clear  compre- 
hension of  the  term  "suggestion"  in  the  study  of  psychotherapy; 
for  the  tool  of  psychotherapy  is  suggestion,  and  all  of  the  sug- 
gestions received  by  the  individual  in  any  manner  whatever  are 
the  factors  determining  his  actions  and  beliefs. 

There  is  nothing  new  in  the  conception  of  the  term  "sug- 
gestion." What  constitutes  a  decided  advance  is  the  more 
thorough  comprehension  of  its  potency  as  a  therapeutic  agent  and 
its  influence  upon  the  development  of  human  character,  and  also  of 
its  influence  in  encouraging  the  normal  functions  of  the  nervous 
system.  It  has  been  used  by  every  human  being,  profession,  sect, 
school  of  learning,  "ist"  or  "ism"  that  ever  existed.  All  edu- 
cation is  the  result  of  repeated  and  accumulated  suggestion — of 
the  impress  conserved  by  the  brain  cell  elements  resulting  from 
past  experiences.  All  theological  sermonizing,  dogmas,  and  re- 
ligions make  employment  of  suggestion  upon  the  mind,  and  the 
impressions  made  by  these  various  experiences  are  conserved  by 
the  neuron  elements  in  such  a  way  that  the  ideas  instilled  into 
the  individual  become  for  all  future  time,  unless  altered  by  other 
processes  of  experience,  a  part  of  his  or  her  personality.  Our 
beliefs  upon  any  subject  are  the  result  of  dominant  suggestions, 
the  impress  being  retained  as  physiological  residue  of  past  expe- 
riences which  have  been  conserved  by  the  neuron  elements. 

By  our  use  or  abuse  of  our  powers  of  suggestion  do  we  be- 
come a  force  for  good  or  evil.  So  receptive  is  the  human  being 
to  suggestion  that  we  become  a  part  of  all  with  which  we  have 


GENERAL    UTILITY   OF   SUGGESTION.  61 

associated  during  our  existence.  Our  beliefs  or  convictions  upon 
any  subject  are  the  sum  of  suggestions  that  we  have  received, 
either  consciously  or  unconsciously,  and  which  have  been  con- 
served by  our  brain  cells.  These  impressions  are  conserved  as 
psychophysiological  centers  for  all  future  time,  unless  altered  or 
modified  by  other  processes  of  experience,  and  all  experience  of 
whatever  sort  signifies  brain  cell  alteration,  change,  growth,  or 
development. 

By  suggestion,  then,  we  are  enabled  to  implant  ideals,  con- 
cepts, viewpoints,  convictions,  and  beliefs  by  which  individual 
life  and  conduct  is  guided.  In  this  way  character  is  developed. 
In  this  manner  also  are  ideas  instilled  into  the  mind  of  the  in- 
dividual for  the  correction  of  vice,  the  cure  of  evil  habits,  and  for 
the  prevention  and  cure  of  certain  forms  of  insanity.  Intellectual 
acquisitions,  of  whatever  sort,  are  obtained  by  the  individual  as 
the  result  of  the  influence  of  suggestion.  The  experiences  by 
which  such  impressions  are  made  upon  the  neuron  elements  leave 
permanent  structural  modifications  by  which  such  knowledge  is 
conserved,  which  forever  afterward  becomes  a  part  of  the  in- 
dividual's personality.  By  the  employment  of  suggestions  in  such 
manner  as  to  be  effective,  the  will  power  is  strengthened,  latent 
talents  are  developed,  and  inherent  capabilities  of  mind  and  body 
brought  into  activity.  Virtue  can  be  instilled  and  vice  eradicated ; 
purity  or  impurity,  confidence  or  fear,  love  or  hate,  joy  or  grief, 
can  be  made  the  dominant  quality  of  the  mind. 

It  is  through  the  employment  of  suggestion  that  personal  in- 
fluence, of  whatever  sort,  is  exerted  by  which  human  activities  are 
stirred,  and  by  which  we  express  our  power  for  good  or  evil. 
By  suggestion  every  center  of  activity  in  the  brain  can  be 
strengthened,  and  every  organic  function  in  the  body  increased  or 
encouraged  to  new  activity.  Indeed,  new  physiological  centers 
can  be  established,  resulting  from  the  employment  of  suggestion, 
the  process  of  experience  being  conserved  as  physiological  residue 
of  the  passing  mental  states  induced  and  retained  by  the  neuron 
elements.  War  and  bloodshed,  theft,  and  wreck  and  ruin  of  man- 
hood and  character,  are  the  result  of  evil  suggestions  that  have 
been  allowed  to  dominate  the  mind  of  an  individual  or  a  nation. 


62  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

The  most  sacred  shrine  of  the  soul  itself  may  be  invaded, 
dominated,  and  profaned  by  suggestions  from  malicious  and  de- 
signing creatures  intruded  upon  the  mind  of  the  unfortunate  in 
whom  the  ideal  ego,  for  the  lack  of  the  right  heredity,  educa- 
tion, and  environment,  has  not  been  awakened  and  evolved. 
Evil  suggestions  on  the  part  of  low  and  degraded  persons,  opera- 
ting upon  the  mind  of  the  imperfectly  developed  or  mentally  in- 
competent individual,  is  accompanied  by  effects  that  are  as  sure 
and  unfailing  as  the  law  of  gravitation  itself,  and  domestic  unhap- 
piness,  divorce,  suicide,  murder,  or  death  are  not  infrequent  re- 
sults. Such  suggestions,  when  accompanied  by  deep-feeling  tones, 
operating  upon  an  unstable  nervous  organization,  convert  its  vic- 
tim into  a  mere  automaton.  Suggestion  upon  the  normal  in- 
dividual is  often  malicious,  but,  cloaked  in  the  garb  of  truth,  is 
the  dominant  force  that  rules  the  life  of  every  human  being,  of 
every  nation,  of  the  very  world  itself. 

By  the  use  of  suggestion  in  disguise  on  the  part  of  the  ' '  mother 
of  Christian  science,"  thousands  of  innocent,  but  conscientious, 
followers  are  being  robbed  of  their  individuality  and  selfhood. 
By  its  use  on  the  part  of  dishonest  and  designing  men,  the  markets 
are  flooded  with  spurious  wares  of  all  kinds,  and  honest  money 
is  paid  for  worthless  trash.  Here  is  the  stronghold  of  the 
patent  medicine  vender,  the  health  food  manufacturer,  and  ad- 
vertising medical  quack,  as  they  play  upon  the  ignorant  credulity 
of  those  whose  inexperience  has  not  developed  the  intelligent  use 
of  their  own  thought  powers. 

The  abuse  of  suggestion  extends  also  into  the  medical  pro- 
fession. Through  its  use  many  people  are  made  to  submit,  on  the 
one  hand,  to  useless  surgical  operations,  which  often  aggravate  the 
functional  disturbance  which  they  were  intended  to  relieve,  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  they  are  caused  to  refuse  the  help  of  honest 
surgery  for  the  relief  of  pathological  conditions  beyond  the  reach 
of  any  other  treatment. 

There  is  absolutely  no  difference  between  hypnotic  suggestion 
and  suggestion  employed  without  hypnotism.  It  produces  the  same 
influence  or  effect  in  kind,  the  difference  being  only  one  of  degree 
as  regards  its  effectiveness  upon  the  psychophysical  organism. 


GENERAL    UTILITY   OP   SUGGESTION.  63 

In  reference  to  the  observed  tendency  of  the  nervous  system  to 
conserve  and  reproduce  its  experience,  or  to  conserve  by  some 
physical  mechanism  the  systems  of  ideas  that  have  been  formed 
by  the  various  psychotherapeutic  methods  of  treatment,  whether 
in  hypnosis  or  in  the  normal  waking  state,  Professor  Morton 
Prince  says : 

"It  makes  no  difference  in  what  state  a  complex  is  formed — 
whether  in  every-day  life,  in  sleep,  trance,  dissociated  personality, 
subconscious  states,  or  hypnosis — they  are  or  may  be  equally  firmly 
organized  and  conserved,  and  they  are  conserved,  whether  we  can 
voluntarily  recall  the  experiences  or  not.  Whether  they  are  to  be- 
come organized  depends  upon  the  mode  and  conditions  under  which 
the  impression  is  made  upon  the  mind  or  nervous  system,  but,  once 
organized,  they  are  conserved  and  become  a  part  of  our  personality. ' ' 

Suggestion  without  hypnotism,  even  when  used  unconsciously, 
may  stealthily  and  subtly  dominate  the  mind  or  nervous  system 
of  the  individual  without  his  consent;  while  hypnotic  suggestion, 
intelligently  applied  for  the  relief  of  functional  ills  of  the  physical 
organism,  is  always  employed  with  the  individual's  consent. 

One  can  not  be  hypnotized  without  the  consent  of  the  indi- 
vidual. The  hypnotic  state  is  induced  only  by  the  co-operation  of 
the  true  ego,  the  real  man,  which  is  the  sum  total  of  the  psychic 
and  physical  potentialities  of  the  individual  self-consciousness. 
When  this  ideal  self  is  fully  developed,  or  an  ideal  self  is  awak- 
ened and  evolved  as  the  result  of  the  influence  of  heredity  and 
experience,  then  the  mind  and  body  are  its  obedient  servants.  It 
is  beyond  the  vision  of  the  microscope  or  the  range  of  the  dissecting 
knife,  and  just  in  proportion  as  it  is  developed  will  it  control  th( 
mind,  and  through  the  mind  produce  harmonious  and  healthfu) 
results  in  the  body. 

I  have  no  wish  to  be  visionary.  Life  is  too  short  for  imprac- 
tical theories  and  suggestions,  but,  to  speak  plainly,  some  of  us 
have  been  half-doctors  long  enough.  We  have  been  dealing  too 
much  with  effects,  and  have  failed  to  consider  an  important 
etiological  factor  of  disease.  Man  is  both  a  mental  and  physical 
being,  and  can  not  be  treated  simply  as  if  we  were  conducting 
experiments  in  a  chemical  laboratory.  Heretofore  most  of  the 


64  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

advance  made  in  the  progress  of  medical  science  has  been  on  a 
physical  plane,  and  the  achievements  made  in  the  branches  of 
surgery,  bacteriology,  pathology,  and  hygiene  challenge  the  ad- 
miration and  applause  of  modern  civilization.  But  while  bacte- 
riology and  pathology  can  detect,  and  surgery  remove  and  destroy, 
the  diseased  part,  and  hygiene  lessen  the  conditions  that  occasion 
the  infection  of  the  organism  with  pathogenic  germs,  the  causes 
of  many  so-called  functional  diseases — among  them  neurasthenia 
and  certain  forms  of  insanity — have  remained  obscure. 

The  number  of  inmates  of  the  insane  asylum  in  every  state  is 
yearly  increasing  far  beyond  the  ratio  of  increase  of  population. 
Why  so  many  diseased  bodies  and  imperfect  nervous  organiza- 
tions? These  bear  a  strong  evidence  of  the  tendency  for  the 
species  to  degenerate  rather  than  to  grow  healthier  and  stronger. 
These  are  burning  and  pertinent  facts  that  are  beginning  to  dawn 
upon  the  thinking  portion  of  our  craft. 

Nor  are  the  people  satisfied.  All  over  the  world  is  the  spirit 
of  unrest  and  dissatisfaction  being  made  manifest,  as  is  indicated 
by  the  different  "mind  cure"  schools  and  cults  which  attempt  to 
carry  their  claims  into  extravagant  absurdities.  The  doctors  them- 
selves realize  this,  and  just  in  proportion  as  they  are  honest  and 
educated  men  are  they  deeply  troubled  at  their  own  deficiencies. 

With  a  large  acquaintance  of  professional  men,  I  am  prepared 
to  say  that  physicians  study  hard  and  work  unceasingly,  and  their 
brain  and  muscles,  and  their  very  heart's  blood  itself,  are  at  the 
disposal  of  their  patients;  but  still  something  more  is  needed. 
Either  our  remedies  are.  insufficient,  or  we  fail  to  understand  the 
great  human  machine  upon  which  we  are  experimenting. 

While  we  do  much  good,  and  earn  sufficient  gratitude  to  enable 
us  to  strive  on,  and  while  we  can  maintain  enough  courage  to  look 
our  patient  squarely  in  the  face,  the  suffering  which  we  have  not 
been  able  to  relieve,  and  the  relief  and  cures  which  we  have  not 
effected,  and  the  universal  prevalence  of  diseases  that  have  not 
been  eradicated,  have  become  such  prominent  factors  in  the  history 
of  our  profession  as  to  seriously  humble  our  pride. 

The  time  has  come  when  psychology  should  be  brought  to  the 
front.  I  would  that  a  chair  of  physiological  psychology  were  es- 


GENERAL    UTILITY   OP   SUGGESTION.  65 

tablished  in  all  our  medical  schools.  I  should  like  to  see  every 
boy  and  girl  in  our  common  schools,  old  enough  to  understand  it, 
made  to  realize  that  a  power  resides  in  the  mind,  and  how  they 
can  use  it  to  maintain  a  healthy  body,  and  how,  by  an  abuse  of 
this  force,  they  increase  their  susceptibility  to  disease,  from  what- 
ever cause. 

To  say  the  least  of  it,  the  medical  profession  should  better  ac- 
quaint itself  with  the  importance  of  psychic  influences  as  etio- 
logical  factors,  as  well  as  equip  itself  to  make  use  of  this  thera- 
peutic power  in  the  cure  of  disease.  When  the  members  of  the 
medical  profession  become  leaders  and  teachers  in  this  important 
branch,  the  practice  of  medicine  will  be  elevated  to  a  higher  plane. 
Then  will  the  breach  between  that  portion  of  intelligent  laymen 
who  feel  that  physicians  are  not  doing  their  duty  be  bridged  over. 

It  may  be  that  the  light  upon  the  landscape  of  the  future  is  but 
a  reflection  from  the  luminous  regions  of  my  own  hopes,  but,  if 
we  take  into  consideration  the  broader  and  higher  course  of  human 
events — such  as  the  work  done  by  the  medical  profession  in  prob- 
lems of  social  vice,  intemperance,  hygiene,  dietetics,  preventive 
medicine,  sanitation,  pure  food,  etc. — we  can  but  feel  that  we  are 
at  last  coming  to  a  conscious  realization  of  a  lofty  ideal  of  the 
brotherhood  of  man,  and  that  the  day  is  not  remote  when  the 
physicians  will  be  found  doing  all  within  their  power  to  help 
their  patients  to  help  themselves.  • 

The  indifference  of  science  has  always  been  the  mainstay  of 
charlatanism.  When  the  intelligent  scientific  application  of  any 
therapeutic  measure  is  adopted  by  the  medical  profession,  charla- 
tanism is  robbed  of  its  use.  That  these  people  effect  cures  of  cer- 
tain forms  of  functional  ills  right  before  our  eyes,  ills  that  had 
not  been  amenable  to  cure  by  our  ordinary  methods  of  treatment, 
is  self-evident.  In  every  city,  town,  and  hamlet  the  followers  of 
the  different  cults  and  "isms"  are  gaining  in  number,  and  thou- 
sands of  dollars  are  reaped  by  them  that  should  go  into  the  pockets 
of  the  medical  profession,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  thousands  of 
innocent  lives  are  sacrificed  on  account  of  the  neglect  of  scientific 
medical  treatment. 

With  the  intelligent  recognition  and  application  of  suggestion 


66  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

in  therapeutics  as  an  aid  in  the  practice  of  medicine,  conditions 
and  symptoms  can  be  relieved  that  can  not  be  reached  by  any  other 
remedy,  and  it  is  cases  of  this  very  class  that  are  going  from 
physicians  and  seeking  aid  from  other  sources. 

The  effect  of  the  mind  upon  metabolism  is  now  well  established. 
Emotional  conditions  of  a  hopeful,  optimistic,  and  cheerful  kind 
encourage  anabolism,  or  constructive  metamorphosis.  On  the  other 
hand,  depressing  emotional  conditions  that  conduce  to  fear  and 
despondency,  and  the  like,  encourage  catabolism,  or  destructive 
metamorphosis.  By  suggestion  we  can  produce  such  mental  im- 
pressions as  will  increase  the  potential  energy  inherent  in  the  cells 
of  the  organism,  and  thus  render  them  less  vulnerable  to  patho- 
genic germs  and  other  etiological  factors  of  disease.  This  is  an 
effectual  means  of  conserving  energy  and  increasing  the  resistive 
powers  of  the  individual,  and  lessening  his  susceptibility  to  dis- 
ease. 

Since  the  observation  of  Beaumont  upon  Alexander  St.  Martin, 
the  Canadian  who  had  a  fistulous  opening  in  the  stomach  suffi- 
ciently large  for  him  to  watch  the  physiological  processes  of  di- 
gestion, the  effect  of  certain  emotions  upon  this  function  has  been 
clearly  recognized.  Beaumont  observed  that  mental  conditions — 
such  as  worry,  fear,  and  anger — diminished  and  sometimes  en- 
tirely suppressed  the  secretion  of  gastric  juice  by  the  stomach. 
At  times,  under  these  conditions,  the  mucous  membrane  became 
red  and  dry,  and  at  others  it  was  pale  and  moist,  showing  the 
effect  of  mental  impressions  upon  the  vasomotor  neuro  regulation 
of  the  blood  supply  to  the  stomach  through  the  involuntary  nervous 
system.  Under  the  conditions  mentioned  fluids  were  immediately 
absorbed,  but  food  remained  undigested  for  from  twenty-four  to 
forty-eight  hours. 

More  recent  discoveries  by  contemporary  psychologists  have 
shown  that  bad  and  unpleasant  feelings  create  harmful  chemical 
products  in  the  body  called  catabolins,  which  are  physically  in- 
jurious. On  the  other  hand,  good,  pleasant,  benevolent,  and 
cheerful  feelings  create  chemical  products  called  anabolins,  which 
are  physically  helpful. 

Quite  frequently  neurasthenic  patients  maintain  a  condition  of 


GENERAL   UTILITY   OP   SUGGESTION.  67 

autotoxemia  on  account  of  morbid  emotional  conditions  that  dom- 
inate their  minds,  giving  rise  to  headaches,  preventing  sleep,  con- 
ducing to  insanity,  and  proving  destructive  to  all  physiological 
processes.  In  this  class  of  cases,  suggestion,  both  with  or  without 
hypnotism,  is  our  most  reliable  therapeutic  aid. 

From  the  earliest  periods  in  the  history  of  mankind  down  to 
the  present  time  there  is  abundant  and  sufficient  proof,  undoubted 
and  acknowledged,  going  to  show  that  in  innumerable  instances 
cures  of  manifold  diseases  and  ills  of  the  physical  organism  have 
been  wrought  by  influences  brought  to  bear  upon  the  mind  of  the 
person  afflicted.  Physicians  are  too  familiar  with  the  history  of 
these  cases  for  me  to  make  further  mention  of  them  here.  One  well- 
demonstrated  fact,  the  result  of  honest  investigation,  is  worth  a 
thousand  opinions  prompted  by  prejudice.  Having  witnessed  the 
efficacious  application  of  suggestion  in  therapeutics,  both  with 
and  without  hypnotism,  in  thousands  of  instances,  I  should  still 
feel  confident  of  the  inestimable  value  of  this  important  thera- 
peutic adjunct  if  every  other  physician  in  the  world  doubted  its 
efficacy. 

We  must  face  the  facts  as  they  are — exact  science  has  proved 
to  us  the  correctness  of  the  claim  of  the  efficacy  of  this  method 
of  treatment  as  a  therapeutic  agent.  The  people  who  make  use 
of  it  in  disguised  form  are  here,  and  the  proposition  that  con- 
fronts us  is,  Shall  we  appropriate  the  laws  that  govern  the  influ- 
ence of  the  mind  to  the  intelligent  and  scientific  treatment  of 
disease  and  make  use  of  them  as  therapeutic  measures,  or  shall 
we  leave  these  laws  to  them  ? 

My  observation  is  that  the  members  of  the  medical  profession 
are  ever  ready  and  anxious  to  avail  themselves  of  any  therapeutic 
resource  that  will  help  to  alleviate  human  suffering.  All  that  is 
needed  is  a  more  thorough  understanding  on  the  part  of  the  gen- 
eral profession  of  the  theory  and  efficacy  of  suggestive  therapeutics, 
and  a  better  understanding  of  the  technic  and  practical  methods 
of  its  application. 

The  idea  has  been  emphasized  that  only  functional  and  neuro- 
pathic conditions  are  benefited  by  this  treatment.  But  be  it  re- 
membered that  a  functional  disturbance  or  disease,  so-called,  if 


68  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

neglected,  may  result  in  an  organic  condition,  and  that  the  timely 
administration  of  suggestive  therapeutics  to  correct  or  cure  the 
functional  disorder  may  prevent  its  resulting  in  an  organic  lesion. 

Furthermore,  suggestive  therapeutics  should  be  applied  with 
an  understanding  and  comprehension  of  the  anatomical  and  physi- 
ological relations  of  the  organism,  as  well  as  of  the  pathological 
conditions  to  be  alleviated.  It  is  not  to  be  used  to  the  exclusion 
of  other  therapeutic  resources,  but  can  always  be  used  with  them, 
for  it  is  not  antagonistic  to  or  incompatible  with  any  remedy 
which  helps  to  cure  disease. 

It  is  evident  that  some  physicians  are  afraid  that  if  they  should 
adopt  this  method  of  therapeutics,  they  would  be  counted  as  allies 
of  the  quacks  and  charlatans  who  misuse  these  methods.  It  is 
the  duty  of  every  medical  man  who  is  true  to  his  Hippocratic 
oath  to  adopt  and  use  every  measure  that  will  help  to  alleviate 
human  suffering.  This  science,  in  the  hands  of  a  conscientious 
physician,  is  capable  of  curing  diseases  and  reaching  conditions 
that  no  other  remedy  can  reach. 


CHAPTER  V. 
HYPNOTISM  DEMONSTRATED. 

Hypnotism  furnishes  us  with  a  practical  demonstration,  or 
proof,  of  the  efficacy  of  suggestion.  It  shows  us  the  conditions 
under  which  suggestion  can  be  successfully  employed,  and  a  better 
understanding  of  the  theoretical  basis  and  of  the  technic  of  em- 
ploying hypnotic  suggestion  better  enables  the  physician  to  suc- 
cessfully employ  suggestion  without  the  aid  of  hypnotism,  which 
is  unquestionably  the  finer  art  in  employing  the  principles  of 
psychotherapy.  While  hypnotic  suggestion  is  more  efficacious  in 
the  vast  majority  of  conditions  to  which  psychotherapeutic  prin- 
ciples are  applicable,  and  while  the  method  is  attended  with  much 
quicker  results,  and  while  it  is  effective  in  such  a  large  number  of 
conditions  that  can  not  be  treated  successfully  by  other  methods 
of  employing  psychotherapeutic  principles,  its  employment  is  very 
frequently  handicapped  by  the  popular  prejudice  which  at  the 
present  time  is  prevalent  concerning  the  measure.  This  prejudice 
is  the  fruit  of  the  erroneous  ideas  that  those  who  have  made  no 
personal  investigation  of  the  utility,  practicability,  and  ration- 
ality of  the  method  at  the  present  time  entertain. 

The  majority  of  people,  and  physicians  as  well,  have  either  had 
no  instruction  in  reference  to  the  utility,  sanity,  and  efficacy  of 
hypnotic  suggestion  as  a  therapeutic  resource,  or  they  have  been 
wrongly  taught.  The  eight  years  spent  by  the  author  in  giving 
practical  instructions  in  psychotherapy  to  the  physicians  of  a  con- 
siderable portion  of  our  country  has  given  him  excellent  oppor- 
tunities to  know  the  "ins  and  outs"  and  "pros  and  cons"  of  all 
varieties  of  medical  practice,  and  he  makes  no  hesitation  in  saying 
that  the  prevalent  ignorance  in  reference  to  all  varieties  of  psycho- 
therapeutic  treatment,  and  especially  in  reference  to  the  employ- 
ment of  hypnotic  suggestion,  on  the  part  of  the  medical  profession 
at  the  present  time  is  appalling.  Moreover,  during  the  time  de- 

69 


70  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

voted  to  the  work  of  instructing  physicians  in  the  practical  meth- 
ods of  employing  psychotherapeutic  principles  I  did  not,  I  desire 
it  to  be  clearly  understood,  deal  with  the  vast  majority  of  the 
physicians  constituting  the  rank  and  file  of  our  profession,  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  I  conducted  my  work  in  such  manner  as  to  appeal 
to  the  intelligence  of  the  leaders  of  the  medical  profession,  and 
that  these  men  indorsed,  approved,  and  recommended  the  measures 
advocated,  illustrated,  and  taught  by  me,  hundreds  and  hundreds 
of  letters  now  in  my  possession  abundantly  attest. 

It  is  not  my  desire  to  be  arrogant — far  from  it.  But,  in  view 
of  the  fact  that  the  number  of  physicians  whom  I  have  instructed 
in  the  technic  of  applying  suggestive  measures,  both  with  and 
without  the  employment  of  hypnotism,  is  greater  than  that  of  any 
other  physician  in  the  entire  world,  I  feel  that  I  am  at  least  justi- 
fied, if  not  qualified,  in  relating  my  experience  in  reference  to  the 
employment  of  this  valuable  form  of  treatment. 

Among  those  physicians  who  were  pleased  to  honor  me  with 
their  presence  at  my  lecture  engagements  were  many  who  had 
studied  the  subject  of  psychotherapy,  in  all  the  varieties  of  its 
employment,  in  all  the  leading  medical  centers  of  this  country 
and  Europe,  and  many  there  were  who  were  free  to  say  that  they 
had  received  more  benefit  from  my  explanation  and  demonstra- 
tion of  the  subject  than  by  the  combined  experience  of  reading 
many  books  and  witnessing  numerous  clinics  in  which  the  meas- 
ures were  illustrated  and  explained. 

What  I  have  been  able  to  accomplish  by  the  employment  of 
hypnotic  suggestion,  so  far  as  its  influence  upon  the  physical  or- 
ganism of  individuals  taken  at  random  would  illustrate,  can  be 
estimated  by  the  statement  that  I  have  instructed  approximately 
five  thousand  American  physicians  to  do  likewise.  Each  one  of 
these  men  demonstrated  to  his  own  satisfaction  that  there  was 
nothing  in  my  personality  that  enabled  me  to  get  results  which 
he  also  did  not  possess.  Whether  such  physicians  were  enabled  to 
accomplish  the  same  results  afterward  is  another  matter.  I  may 
say  for  the  satisfaction  of  the  reader  that  some  were  able  to  get 
the  same  results  as  were  accomplished  in  my  presence  and  others 
were  not.  It  all  depended  upon  the  personality  of  the  individual. 


HYPNOTISM    DEMONSTRATED.  71 

Some  physicians  can  witness  a  surgical  operation  where  a  special 
technic  is  employed  and  immediately  go  away  and  do  the  operation 
with  equal  dexterity.  Others  could  never  employ  the  same  technic 
successfully  if  they  witnessed  the  procedure  a  hundred  times.  The 
same  is  true  in  any  other  department  of  human  knowledge. 
There  is  something  in  the  individual  which  either  enables  him  to 
exercise  the  capacity  to  appropriate  what  he  experiences  and  make 
it  a  part  of  his  own  personality,  or  he  is  not  enabled  to  grasp  and 
utilize  it.  The  fault  in  such  cases  is  in  the  capacity  of  the  indi- 
vidual and  not  in  the  method  illustrated.  One  thing  is  sure — a 
given  amount  of  training  is  an  essential  in  the  employment  of  all 
therapeutic  procedures,  and  at  the  present  time  our  medical  col- 
leges are  not  giving  the  prospective  physicians  sufficient  training 
in  the  art  or  technic  of  employing  psychotherapeutic  principles. 

That  some  critics  are  not  enabled  to  appreciate  or  assimilate  the 
ideas  here  presented  for  the  above  mentioned  reasons,  the  reader 
is  now  enabled  to  clearly  comprehend.  That  the  vast  majority 
are  more  en  rapport  with  the  writer,  I  also  fully  appreciate. 

The  method  here  described  is  the  one  which  I  used  in  connec- 
tion with  my  class  work  with  physicians  on  approximately  five 
thousand  subjects,  employed  by  the  suggestions  given  by  as  many 
different  physicians,  with  the  result  that  practically  every  indi- 
vidual who  gave  his  consent  and  co-operation  was  hypnotized,  or 
placed  in  a  condition  of  suggestibility  sufficiently  for  anesthesia 
to  be  induced  by  suggestion,  without  a  failure,  I  am  sure,  in  one 
percent  of  the  cases.  If  the  reader  wishes  to  know  why  these  re- 
sults are  so  much  more  successful  than  those  reported  by  some 
authorities  on  this  subject,  I  can  only  answer  that  I  am  stating 
the  facts  as  they  were.  In  all  cases  I  exercised  all  the  suggestive 
ability  within  my  power  upon  the  physicians  themselves,  posi- 
tively assuring  them  that  they  could  accomplish  results.  In  other 
words,  I  made  them  believe  that  they  could  succeed  and  taught 
them  how.  This,  I  believe,  is  the  secret  of  the  success  of  the  meth- 
ods here  described.  One  must  believe  in  his  ability  to  succeed  and 
must  understand  the  technic  of  employing  suggestion.  After  each 
physician  had  obtained  results  by  the  employment  of  his  own 
verbal  suggestions,  and  had  witnessed  the  successful  application  of 


72  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

the  method  in  the  hands  of  others  present,  the  experience  had 
produced  such  a  psychological  effect  upon  him  as  to  enable  him 
to  exercise  the  skill  of  the  expert.  Some  of  our  psychothera- 
peutists  would  say  that  the  experience  which  I  had  put  all  such 
physicians  through  had  served  to  form  a  complex  which  func- 
tion^d  as  a  part  of  their  own  personality.  It  is  quite  likely  that 
this  is  true. 

I  may  say,  in  passing,  that  the  methods  which  are  here  described 
are  not  those  that  I  am  at  present  employing  in  my  practice,  for 
in  no  case  now  do  I  use  the  least  bit  of  deception.  This,  however, 
was  a  necessity  in  making  demonstrations  for  the  physicians,  and 
the  method  served  a  useful  purpose  in  the  work  that  I  was  doing 
at  the  time,  as  it  gave  a  practical  demonstration  of  the  efficacy  of 
suggestion,  and  illustrated  how  easily  suggestion  can  be  employed 
in  conjunction  with  the  administration  of  medicine — especially 
employed  in  the  general  practice  of  medicine.  The  principle  is 
the  same  when  employed  for  therapeutic  purposes,  and  the  dem- 
onstrations here  described,  witnessed  by  so  many  American  phy- 
sicians who  can  vouch  for  the  correctness  of  the  experiences 
described,  should  prove  of  great  value  to  the  student  of  psycho- 
therapy. Regarding  the  method  employed  by  me  in  actual  prac- 
tice upon  cases  referred  to  me  by  my  colleagues,  or  those  whose 
acquaintance  with  me  has  been  the  result  of  my  writings,  all  of 
whom  know  that  I  make  free  use  of  psychotherapeutic  principles, 
these  will  be  made  known  to  the  reader  by  a  careful  study  of  this 
book.  It  should  ever  be  borne  in  mind  that  psychotherapy  can  not 
be  brought  under  a  single  formula,  but  must  always  be  adapted  to 
the  psychology  of  the  individual  patient.  Hypnotic  suggestion, 
however,  in  well-selected  cases  is  one  of  the  most  important  of  all 
the  various  psychotherapeutic  methods. 

Instead  of  appearing  to  use  hypnotism  in  the  presence  of  the 
physicians  on  the  individuals  brought  in  for  demonstrations,  I 
use  a  medicine  in  a  bottle,  one  of  the  local  antiseptic  solutions, 
and  call  this  medicine  " somno-analgesic  compound."  I  ascribe 
to  this  medicine  whatever  value  or  therapeutic  property  I  desire 
it  to  possess,  and  picture  on  the  mind  of  the  individual  what 
effect  it  will  have,  and,  getting  his  consent  for  me  to  use  the  med- 


HYPNOTISM    DEMONSTRATED.  73 

icine,  I  secure  all  the  co-operation  necessary  on  the  part  of  the 
subject  to  put  him  into  that  suggestible  condition  which  is  pro- 
duced by  suggestion  and  known  as  the  hypnotic  state. 

If  you  were  to  ask  me  how  to  make  a  suggestion,  I  would  say, 
"In  a  perfectly  natural  way  of  talking,  with  the  least  affectation 
possible."  If  you  in  the  least  doubt  your  ability  to  use  the 
method  which  will  be  explained  to  you  here,  be  actor  enough  to 
speak  and  act  as  if  you  had  not  the  slightest  doubt  about  the 
results  to  be  obtained.  Talk  as  if  you  meant  it — talk  calmly, 
earnestly,  and  kindly.  Use  a  monotone  voice.  Look  at  your  pa- 
tient while  you  are  talking  to  him.  Look  right  into  his  eyes  and 
get  him  to  look  at  you. 

The  following  demonstrations  and  explanations  were  steno- 
graphically  reported,  showing  in  detail  my  method  of  demonstra- 
ting hypnotism  in  my  class  work  among  the  physicians.  There 
were  present  several  well-known  physicians  who  took  part  in  the 
demonstration  described,  who  will  vouch  for  the  correctness  of  the 
incidents  here  reported. 

The  method  here  described  demonstrates  a  simple,  practical, 
efficacious  method  of  inducing  the  hypnotic  state  to  the  extent  that 
anesthesia  can  be  produced,  and  each  one  of  the  several  physicians 
present  demonstrated  his  own  ability  to  do  so,  using  an  entirely 
new  subject,  brought  in  from  the  street,  whom  we  had  never  seen 
before. 

When  I  was  ready  for  material  for  the  demonstrations  of  hyp- 
notism, two  of  the  physicians  present  were  requested  to  go  out  on 
the  street  and  bring  in  two  or  three  men  who  were  absolute  stran- 
gers to  us  all.  One  of  them  was  brought  into  the  room  at  a  time 
to  be  hypnotized,  and  as  he  walked  in  at  the  door  I  addressed  him 
as  follows : 1 

A  Pre-Hypnotic  Suggestion  Given. — "Take  this  chair,  please. 
Now,  I  will  explain  to  you  what  I  am  doing  and  what  I  wanted 
with  you.  Do  you  see  this  little  bottle  of  medicine?  This  is  a 
sample  of  a  preparation  that  I  am  introducing  to  the  physicians, 
known  as  "somno-analgesic  compound."  "Somno"  means  sleep- 


1  Take    note    that    the    medicine    used   upon    this   occasion   was    only   a    small    vial   of 

water. 


74  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

producing,  and  "analgesic"  means  pain-relieving;  so,  then,  this 
is  sleep-producing  and  pain-relieving  medicine.  It  is  used  by  rub- 
bing it  on  the  forehead  just  as  you  see  me  rub  it  on  mine.  You 
notice  it  does  not  harm  me,  and  it  will  not  harm  you.  Now,  I  have 
explained  to  the  physicians  here  that,  in  order  for  this  remedy 
to  have  its  effect,  it  must  be  applied  in  a  certain  way,  and  that  it  is 
the  way  that  we  get  our  patient  to  do  and  be  while  the  medicine  is 
applied  that  determines  its  effect.  I  want  you  to  take  a  seat  in 
this  chair,  lean  your  head  back  against  the  chair,  relax  every  mus- 
cle, close  your  eyes  lightly,  and  breathe  through  your  mouth,  just 
as  if  you  were  going  to  sleep.  Then,  as  I  apply  the  remedy,  you 
will  soon  get  quiet  all  over,  then  get  drowsy  and  sleepy,  and  go  to 
sleep,  and  awake  feeling  better.  Now,  see  here,  my  man,  don't 
resist  the  effect  of  the  medicine;  just  sit  here  and  let  it  have  its 
effect." 

Suggestions  to  Induce  Hypnosis. — Before  beginning  sugges- 
tions to  induce  hypnosis,  after  giving  pre-hypnotic  suggestions,  have 
your  patient  relax  every  muscle,  close  his  eyes  lightly,  and  breathe 
through  his  mouth,  as  illustrated  in  the  frontispiece.  (See  frontis- 
piece.) Then  speak  about  as  follows:  "All  right,  take  this  seat. 
Lean  your  head  back  against  the  chair.  Close  your  eyes  lightly 
and  breathe  through  your  mouth,  and  think  of  going  to  sleep. 
Now,  as  I  apply  this  remedy  you  will  soon  become  quiet  all  over, 
and  get  drowsy  and  sleepy,  and  go  to  sleep  and  awake  feeling 
better. 

"I  will  talk  to  you  to  help  you  to  concentrate  your  mind. 
Now,  as  I  apply  this  remedy  you  will  get  sleepy,  sleepy,  sleepy, 
so-o-o-o  sleepy.  Now,  go  to  sleep,  sleep,  sleep,  sleep. 

"Now,  you  feel  quiet  all  over.  Your  muscles  are  relaxed. 
Everything  is  dark  to  you.  You  do  not  hear  anything  but  my 
voice.  You  are  drowsy  and  sleepy,  so-o-o-o  sleepy.  You  feel  the 
sleep  coming  over  you.  You  are  going  to  sleep.  Sleep,  sleep, 
sleep. 

"By  the  time  I  count  ten  you  will  be  fast  asleep.  One,  two, 
three,  four,  five,  six,  seven,  eight,  nine,  ten,  and  you  are  asleep, 
fast  asleep,  sound  asleep. 

"By  the  time  I  count  five  more  you  will  be  sound  and   dead 


HYPNOTISM    DEMONSTRATED.  75 

asleep,  just  as  you  are  in  the  dead  of  night  when  sleeping  soundly 
in  your  own  bed.  One,  two,  three,  four,  five,  and  you  are  asleep, 
fast  asleep,  sound  asleep,  dead  asleep.  Don't  awake,  now,  until  I 
tell  you. 

"Every  second  your  sleep  will  become  sounder  and  sounder, 
and  deeper  and  deeper.  Sleep  on  quietly  until  I  awake  you: 

"Now,  you  will  not  feel  anything,  or  hear  anything,  or  know 
anything  except  what  I  tell  you.  Sleep  on  quietly  until  I 
awake  you." 

"Now,  gentlemen,  this  subject  is  in  a  suggestible  condition, 
which  I  will  proceed  to  demonstrate.  I  raise  his  arm." 

Suggestions  to  the  Subject  Hypnotized. — "Sleep  on  quietly. 
When  I  count  three  this  arm  will  be  stiff — so  stiff  that  you  can't 
take  it  down.  One,  two,  three;  your  arm  is  stiff,  and  you  can't 
take  it  down  until  I  tell  you.  Now,  when  I  rub  this  medicine  on 
your  arm  three  times  it  will  be  dead  and  have  no  feeling  in  it. 
Now,  I  pinch  this  arm"  (thrusting  a  pin  through  a  fold  of  the 
skin ) ,  "  but  you  do  not  feel  it ;  there  is  no  feeling  here  at  all ;  this 
arm  is  perfectly  dead." 

"Gentlemen,  no  one  minds  being  pinched,  at  least  with  your 
finger  nails,  so  I  give  the  easiest  suggestion  to  accept  to  accomplish 
an  end.  For  the  same  reason  I  say  to  a  patient,  'I  will  examine 
this  tooth,'  while  in  reality  I  apply  the  forceps  and  extract  it. 
This  makes  it  easier  for  the  patient  to  accept  the  suggestion. ' ' 

"Now,  sleep  on,  and  when  I  count  three,  stand  up.  Put  your 
heels  together,  and  when  I  say  'stiff,'  be  as  stiff  as  iron — so  stiff 
I  can  lay  you  across  two  chairs  and  you  will  not  bend.  One,  two, 
three.  Now,  stand  up.  Get  stiff — stiff  as  iron." 

"Place  his  heels  in  the  other  chair,  please,  doctor."  (The  man 
is  placed  with  his  head  on  one  chair  and  his  heels  on  another.) 
"Now,  hold  strong,  be  stiff."  (Standing  upon  his  body.)  He 
sustains  my  weight  of  two  hundred  pounds  easily.  "Now,  relax, 
limber,  sit  down,  and  sleep  on." 

"Now,  my  man,  when  I  count  three  you  will  open  your  eyes 
and  be  wide  awake.  You  will  be  feeling  good  all  over.  You  will 
remember  nothing  that  has  been  said  or  done,  and  will  find  that  you 


76  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

never  felt  better  in  your  life,  and  will  always  be  glad  that  you  came 
up  here.  One,  two,  three,  and  you  are  awake." 

"Have  a  good  nap?" 

"Yes,  sir." 

"What  do  you  remember  since  coming  into  this  room?" 

"Nothing  at  all  but  sitting  in  that  chair  and  going  to  sleep." 

' '  You  are  sure  that  nothing  has  hurt  you  since  sitting  there  ? ' ' 

' '  No,  sir ;  nothing  has  hurt  me. ' ' 

Now,  the  talk  that  I  gave  that  man  about  my  selling  the  med- 
icine, and  how  it  was  used,  and  what  it  was  used  for,  etc.,  was  the 
pre-hypnotic  suggestion.  In  that  way  I  got  his  voluntary  consent 
to  sit  in  this  chair  and  let  the  medicine  have  its  effect.  In  doing 
that  he  was  letting  me  put  him  in  that  suggestive,  condition  un- 
fortunately named  the  hypnotic  state.  Notice,  again,  I  had  that 
man  relax  every  muscle,  close  his  eyes  lightly,  and  breathe  through 
his  mouth.  He  was  then  in  a  condition  of  voluntary  receptivity. 
The  very  fact  that  he  agrees  to  relax,  close  his  eyes,  and  breathe 
through  his  mouth  indicates  that  he  is  a  hypnotic  subject,  because 
it  signifies  his  willingness. 

As  to  who  is  a  hypnotic  subject,  it  is  the  individual  who  does 
not  know  that  he  is  to  be  hypnotized,  whose  confidence  I  can  se- 
cure sufficiently  to  get  him  to  conform  to  the  conditions,  just  as 
we  have  demonstrated. .,  I  always  secure  the  voluntary  co-operation 
of  the  individual,  and  .get  that  supreme  factor  in  human  conscious- 
ness— the  will — to  assist  me  in  accomplishing  the  result.  I  get  the 
co-operation  of  the  voluntary  waking  consciousness  to  act  upon 
or  execute  an  idea  or  series  of  ideas,  either  consciously  or  sub- 
consciously. In  getting  an  individual  to  go  into  that  sleep-like 
condition  known  as  the  hypnotic  state,  I  am  simply  getting  the 
real  ego  to  act  upon  or  execute  an  idea  through  intelligent  co- 
operation. That  is  the  way  by  which  that  subconscious  condition 
known  as  the  hypnotic  state  is  produced.  Then,  after  the  subject 
is  hypnotized,  I  get  him  to  act  upon  or  execute  an  idea  subcon- 
sciously. 

In  approximately  five  thousand  instances  in  which  I  have  used 
men  of  all  nationalities  for  demonstration  in  my  class  work,  I  have 
yet  to  see  the  first  unpleasant  result.  In  all  cases  pins  were  stuck 


HYPNOTISM    DEMONSTRATED.  77 

through  their  faces  or  arms,  and  their  bodies  put  across  chairs 
and  one  or  more  men  stood  upon  them.  I  have  used  lawyers, 
preachers,  doctors,  dentists,  merchants,  mechanics,  and  people 
of  all  trades  and  classes.  As  regards  nationalities,  Germans, 
Frenchmen,  Englishmen,  Italians,  Chinamen,  Japanese,  Indians, 
and  negroes  have  been  my  subjects.  They  have  all  proved  about 
equally  susceptible  as  regards  race. 

The  more  intelligent  individuals  of  all  races  made  the  best  sub- 
jects. Every  one  who  left  the  room  went  out  with  a  pleasant  smile 
on  his  face,  and  most  of  them  thanked  me  for  the  experience.  I 
treated  them  all  kindly,  and  acted  in  a  way  to  secure  the  co-opera- 
tion of  a  high  element  of  human  consciousness. 

People  have  faith  in  medicine,  and  when  we  proceed  as  if  using 
a  medicine  we  utilize  the  faith  or  confidence  that  is  reposed  in  this 
material  agency,  inert  though  it  is  as  to  physiological  effect,  which 
proves  a  most  powerful  factor  in  producing  that  condition  known 
as  the  hypnotic  state  on  the  one  hand,  and  getting  results  by  sug- 
gestion applied  as  a  therapeutic  measure  on  the  other. 

Our  therapeutic  measures  must  be  adapted  to  the  individuality 
of  the  patient  with  whom  we  are  dealing. 

Demonstration  No.  2. — "Now,  Doctor  Blank,  I  want  you  to 
hypnotize  the  next  man.  I  want  you  to  convince  yourself  that  your 
suggestions  are  just  as  efficacious  as  mine. 

"See,  I  have  tacked  these  printed  suggestions  upon  the  wall, 
over  the  chair  that  the  man  will  occupy  here.  I  will  give  him  the 
pre-hypnotic  suggestion  for  you.  By  this  I  convert  him  into  a 
hypnotic  subject.  I  talk  him  into  willingness  to  sit  in  that  chair 
and  let  the  medicine  have  its  effect,  while  you  carry  him,  by  read- 
ing those  suggestions  on  that  wall,  into  a  deeper  state  of  sug- 
gestibility. Bring  in  another  man,  please."  (Another  subject  is 
brought  in.) 

A  Pre-Hypnotic  Suggestion  Given.— "Take  that  seat,  and  I 
will  explain  to  you  what  I  am  doing  and  what  I  want  with  you. 
Do  you  see  this  little  bottle  of  medicine  ?  I  am  introducing  to  the 
physicians  here  a  remedy  to  cure  headache,  quiet  nervousness,  re- 
lieve pain,  etc.  .  It  is  applied  by  rubbing  it  on  the  forehead  just 
as  you  see  me  do  here.  It  iiiust.be  applied  in  a  certain  way  to  get 


78  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

results.  The  physician  here  knows  how  to  apply  it.  I  have 
explained  to  him  that  it  is  important  to  get  his  patient  to  conform 
to  certain  conditions  in  order  that  the  medicine  will  produce  re- 
sults that  are  expected.  That  is  what  I  will  show  you.  I  want 
you  to  sit  in  this  chair,  and  let  the  doctor  apply  this  to  you  just 
as  if  you  had  a  headache  and  he  were  going  to  relieve  it  for  you. 
Now  look  at  me.  I  want  you  to  sit  in  this  chair  as  you  see  me, 
relax  every  muscle,  close  your  eyes  lightly,  and  breathe  through 
your  mouth.  Then  when  the  physician  here  applies  this  remedy, 
you  will  soon  get  quiet  all  over,  and  get  drowsy  and  sleepy,  and 
go  to  sleep,  and  awake  feeling  better.  Now,  I  want  to  ask  you, 
don't  resist  it — just  sit  here  and  allow  the  medicine  to  have  its 
effect.  Take  this  seat. " 

"Proceed  to  apply  the  medicine,  Doctor."  (Rubbing  "the  med- 
icine" on  his  head  on  either  side,  the  physician  read  the  following 
suggestions  in  a  conversational  tone,  with  a  low  monotone,  affirma- 
tive voice)  : 

Suggestions  to  Induce  Hypnosis. — "You  close  your  eyes  lightly. 
Breathe  through  your  mouth.  Think  of  going  to  sleep.  As  I 
apply  this  remedy  you  will  soon  get  quiet  all  over,  and  get  drowsy 
and  sleepy,  and  go  to  sleep,  and  awake  feeling  better. 

"I  will  talk  to  you  to  help  you  concentrate  your  mind. 

"Now,  as  I  rub  this  on  your  head  you  will  get  sleepy,  sleepy, 
sleepy,  so-o-o-o  sleepy.  Now,  go  to  sleep,  sleep,  sleep,  sleep.  Now, 
you  feel  quiet  all  over.  Your  muscles  are  relaxed.  Everything  is 
dark  to  you.  You  do  not  hear  anything  but  my  voice.  You  are 
feeling  quiet  from  your  head  clear  down  to  your  feet.  You  feel  a 
torpor  all  over  your  body.  Your  arms  and  limbs  are  so-o-o-o 
heavy.  You  are  drowsy  and  sleepy,  so-o-o-o  sleepy.  You  feel  the 
sleep  coming  over  you ;  you  are  going  to  sleep.  Sleep,  sleep,  sleep, 
sleep. 

"By  the  time  I  count  ten  you  will  be  fast  asleep.  One,  two, 
three,  four,  five,  six,  seven,  eight,  nine,  ten — and  you  are  asleep, 
fast  asleep,  sound  asleep. 

"By  the  time  I  count  five  more  you  will  be  sound  asleep  and 
dead  asleep,  just  as  you  are  in  the  dead  of  night  when  you  are  at 
home  in  your  bed.  One,  two,  three,  four,  five,  and  you  are  asleep. 


HYPNOTISM    DEMONSTRATED.  79 

fast  asleep,  sound  asleep,  dead  asleep.  Don't  awake,  now,  until  I 
tell  you. 

"Every  second  your  sleep  will  become  sounder  and  sounder, 
and  deeper  and  deeper.  You  now  see  what  a  quiet,  sweet  expe- 
rience you  are  having.  You  are  having  a  quiet,  refreshing  sleep. 
Sleep  perfectly  quiet  until  I  awake  you. 

"Now,  you  will  not  feel  anything,  or  hear  anything,  or  know 
anything,  except  what  I  tell  you.  Sleep,  sleep,  sleep — quiet,  re- 
freshing sleep.  Sleep  perfectly  quiet  until  I  awake  you.  Every 
second  your  sleep  will  become  sounder  and  sounder,  deeper  and 
deeper.  Sleep  on  quietly  until  I  awake  you." 

I  then  proceeded:  "Now,  Doctor,  hold  up  this  man's  arm  and 
suggest  to  him  that  when  you  count  three  it  will  be  stiff — so  stiff 
that  he  can  not  take  it  down."  (The  arm  staying  there  as  sug- 
gested indicated  that  the  individual  was  in  a  suggestible  condi- 
tion.) "Now,  take  hold  of  his  wrist,  Doctor,  and  say  to  him, 
'Your  arm  will  come  down  now.' 

"You  notice  that  arm  came  down  with  a  wax-like  resistance — 
no  volition  exercised  by  him  at  all.  When  I  feel  that  wax-like 
resistance  as  I  make  the  'arm-test,'  I  am  quite  sure  that  I  can  pro- 
duce anesthesia  by  suggestion. 

' '  Doctor,  suggest  to  him  that  his  arm  will  be  dead  when  you  rub 
the  medicine  on  it  three  times — that  it  will  be  perfectly  dead  and 
have  no  feeling  in  it  at  all.  You  see,  gentlemen,  after  that  sugges- 
tion I  am  able  to  thrust  a  pin  through  his  arm  without  the  slightest 
evidence  of  pain." 

(Doctor  Blank  asks  if  any  other  part  of  the  body  can  be  rendered 
anesthetic  by  suggestion,  and  if  it  is  not  a  fact  that  the  back  of  the 
arm  is  neither  very  sensitive  nor  vascular.)  "All  right,  rub  some 
of  this  medicine  on  his  lower  lip  and  suggest  that  when  you  rub  it 
three  times  it  wrill  be  dead  and  have  no  feeling  in  it.  Notice  this, 
please,  gentlemen."  (Thrusting  a  pin  through  his  lower  lip  from 
outside  to  inside  an  inch  through  the  lip.)  "You  see  it  does  not 
bleed,  even  on  the  inner  surface  of  his  lip." 

No  place,  except  the  eye,  is  more  sensitive  than  the  lip,  and  no 
place  in  the  body  is  more  vascular.  As  to  why  this  does  not 
bleed,  I  will  refer  later  on  in  my  lecture.  It  is  supposed  to  be 


80  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

the  influence  exerted  by  suggestion  upon  the  coaptation  of  the 
neurons. 

Upon  one  occasion,  in  the  presence  of  the  faculty  of  the  medical 
department  of  one  of  our  state  universities,  and  of  at  least  one 
hundred  physicians  and  three  hundred  medical  students,  I  thrust  a 
steel  hat  pin  through  the  cheeks  of  three  hypnotized  subjects.  Then 
I  requested  a  noted  surgeon  present  to  name  one  man's  face  that 
should  bleed,  and  bleed  more  than  just  a  few  drops,  and  that  I 
would  remove  the  pin  from  the  faces  of  the  other  two  men  without 
bleeding,  while  this  man's  face  would  bleed.  The  experiment  was 
a  perfect  success.  I  made  the  same  experiment  again,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  a  local  medical  society. 

The  method  of  getting  the  part  to  bleed  is  to  suggest  pain  in  the 
part,  and  the  control  over  the  blood  supply  to  the  part  through  the 
influence  of  the  higher  centers  over  the  vasomotor  neuro  regulation 
of  the  blood  supply  is  augmented.  To  keep  it  from  bleeding,  sug- 
gest that  the  part  is  dead,  perfectly  dead,  and  has  no  feeling  in  it. 
Then  the  higher  centers  seem  to  exert  an  inhibitory  influence  over 
the  flow  of  blood  in  the  part  with  which,  in  suggestive  anesthesia, 
the  face  pierced  by  a  steel  hat  pin  does  not  bleed — at  least  in  nine- 
tenths  of  the  cases. 

"Your  subject  seems  to  be  comfortable,  Doctor.  Now,  suggest  to 
him  that  when  you  count  three  he  will  stand  up,  and  when  you  say 
'stiff'  that  he  will  be  as  stiff  as  iron  from  head  to  foot.  I  will  lay 
him  across  the  chairs  for  you,  as  there  is  a  knack  that  I  have 
acquired  of  lifting  a  man  in  that  position  that  makes  it  easy  for  me. 

"Put  your  foot  there,  Doctor,  and  we  will  both  stand  upon  him. 
Give  me  your  hand.  Tell  him  to  be  stiff — to  hold  strong.  Now 
come  up  gradually. 

"You  see  he  easily  sustains  our  combined  weight  of  over  four 
hundred  pounds  in  a  line  in  the  center  of  his  body. 

"Tell  him  to  relax,  sit  down,  sleep  on.  Doctor,  suggest  to  your 
subject  that  when  you  rub  this  medicine  on  his  arm  three  times  it 
will  be  dead  and  have  no  feeling  in  it  as  long  as  he  is  in  this  room. 
Tell  him  that  when  he  is  awake  you  can  thrust  a  pin  in  the  skin  of 
that  arm  while  he  is  looking  at  it  and  he  will  have  no  feeling  in  it — 
that  his  arm  will  be  perfectly  dead  as  long  as  he  is  in  this  room. 


HYPNOTISM    DEMONSTRATED.  81 

"Now  suggest  to  him  that  when  you  count  three  he  will  be  wide 
awake,  that  lie  will  feel  good  all  over,  that  he  will  not  remember 
anything  that  has  been  said  or  done  while  in  the  room,  that  nothing 
has  hurt  him,  and  that  he  will  never  have  felt  better  in  his  life,  that 
he  will  be  glad  he  came  up  here,  and  will  always  feel  better.  Now 
count  three  and  tell  him  to  awake." 

"All  right,  my  man ;  how  do  you  feel ? ' ' 

"All  right,  sir." 

' '  Has  anything  hurt  you  since  you  came  into  this  room  ? ' ' 

"No,  sir;  not  in  the  least." 

' '  Do  you  see  this  pin  ? ' '  The  doctor  put  some  medicine  on  your 
arm  here  and  it  has  no  feeling  in  it.  I  am  going  to  stick  it  with 
this  pin.  If  you  feel  it  in  the  least,  let  me  know.  Now,  look  at 
it — here  it  goes;  do  you  feel  that?" 

"Not  a  bit." 

' '  That  will  never  hurt  you  or  never  get  sore  in  the  least. ' ' 

(The  doctor  asks  if  I  ever  have  any  trouble  in  waking  a  sub- 
ject?) "Not  in  the  slightest.  He  is  in  a  condition  of  increased 
suggestibility,  and  to  awake  him  is  only  to  get  him  to  act  upon 
an  idea  or  suggestion,  and  this  he  will  do  easier  now  than  ever 
before,  provided  you  make  the  suggestion  properly. 

"Occasionally  it  is  necessary  to  repeat  again,  'Wake  up.' 
Rarely  have  I  found  it  necessary  to  thump  him  on  the  face  or 
slap  him  lightly,  and  speak  more  emphatically,  '  Wake  up ! '  Be 
calm,  well  poised,  and  self-possessed.  Should  you  ever  find  a  sub- 
ject that  any  one  else  had  hypnotized  and  found  difficulty  in 
awakening,  either  turn  an  interrupted  current  of  electricity  upon 
him  or  administer  one-tenth  of  a  grain  of  apomorphin  hypodermat- 
ically,  and  see  what  he  will  do.  I  have  never  found  this  neces- 
sary." 

What  effect  does  hypnotism  have  on  the  subject,  is  asked. 
"Whatever  effect  you  suggest.  The  effect  is  determined  alto- 
gether by  your  suggestions.  Hypnotism  is  but  the  induction  of  a 
mental  condition  in  which  your  suggestions  will  be  more  effective 
and  lasting.  I  will  cover  that  question  in  detail  in  my  analysis 
of  the  subject  later  on. 

"Gentlemen,   you  notice  those  men   go   out   of  this  room  with 


82  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

smiles  on  their  faces.     They  seem  to   appreciate   and  enjoy  the 
experience. 

"As  these  experiments  are  conducted  here  I  regard  our  demon- 
strations as  splendid  mental  gymnastics.  Those  men  are  sent  out 
of  here  with  a  new  element  of  selfhood  having  been  aroused 
within  them.  The  real  man,  the  ideal  ego,  is  more  self-conscious 
of  his  mastery  and  control  of  mind  and  body,  his  servants,  than 
when  he  came  into  this  room.  I  never  hypnotized  an  individual 
in  my  life  who  was  not  my  friend  after  that,  all  because  I  dealt 
with  him  kindly  and  he  appreciated  it.  The  man  himself,  the 
real  self,  is  not  weakened  and  dethroned  by  the  methods  that  we 
employ,  as  some  would  have  you  believe. 

"When  you  rightly  appeal  to  the  individual,  you  can  take  his 
body,  and  stick  it,  stand  upon  it,  cut  it,  etc.,  and  it  is  all  right 
with  him,  because  every  step  you  are  taking  is  through  the  power 
possessed  within  him. 

"How  frequent  it  is  that  the  operator  becomes  hypnotized  in- 
stead of  his  subject,  thinking  that  it  was  some  power  that  he  wras 
exerting  over  the  hypnotized  individual,  rather  than  the  use  of  an 
inherent  quality  of  force  within  the  individual  himself. 

"It  is  largely  a  matter  of  confidence  in  human  beings.  Faith 
in  your  fellowman,  confidence  in  his  ability  to  exercise  inherent 
potentialities  that  are  written  in  his  blood  and  chiseled  in  his 
cerebral  cells,  is  the  secret  of  success  in  this  line  of  work,  as  well 
as  an  important  essential  in  rendering  genuine  service  to  your 
fellowman  in  every  department  of  life." 

(Demonstrations  Nos.  3,  4,  and  5  were  about  like  those  just 
described,  and  a  further  report  of  these  cases  is  therefore  un- 
necessary.) 

"Gentlemen,  with  the  next  subject  waiting  on  the  outside  I 
will  demonstrate  another  method  of  inducing  the  hypnotic  condi- 
tion by  having  him  fix  his  eyes  upon  some  bright  object,  so  as  to 
get  his  attention  while  making  suggestions. 

"Take  this  seat,  my  man.  These  are  physicians,  and  I  desire 
to  show  them  how  I  can  get  a  man  to  look  at  this  bright  collar 
button  until  his  eyes  become  tired  and  how  he  will  go  to  sleep 


HYPNOTISM    DEMONSTRATED.  83 

in  a  few  minutes.  I  will  put  you  to  sleep,  and  you  will  sleep  not 
over  five  minutes  and  awake  feeling  better." 

"But  I  do  not  care  to  go  to  sleep,  Doctor,"  says  the  patient. 

"All  right,  then;  we  will  excuse  you." 

A  physician:  "Doctor  Munro,  I  should  like  to  see  you  put 
that  man  to  sleep  and  put  him  through  the  same  test  as  you 
did  the  others." 

"I  should  be  glad  to  do  so,  Doctor,  but  this  man  says  he  does 
not  care  to  go  to  sleep,  and  that  is  the  end  of  it  so  far  as  our 
efforts  to  hypnotize  him  are  concerned.  No  one  can  be  hypnotized 
against  his  will.  Consent  and  co-operation  are  absolutely  neces- 
sary, except  where  autosuggestion  on  the  part  of  the  patient  can 
be  brought  into  play  through  credulity  or  fear — conditions  which 
would  remove  the  experiment  altogether  from  the  realm  of  the 
justifiable." 

The  point  that  I  have  attempted  to  drive  home  upon  your 
consciousness  here  is  that  more  people  will  consent  for  the  med- 
icine to  put  them  to  sleep  than  will  give  their  consent  to  be 
hypnotized;  so  by  the  use  of  the  medicine  you  can  accomplish 
results  that  can  not  be  secured  otherwise.  It  is  a  means  to  secure 
an  end.  There  is  no  deception  in  it,  for  I  tell  the  individual 
what  I  expect  him  to  do,  what  will  be  the  result,  and  what  I 
want  him  to  do  in  order  that  the  result  may  be  obtained.  The 
medicine  actually  is  the  material  means  through  which  the  effect 
is  induced.  It  does  it  by  the  impression  it  makes  upon  the  mind — 
the  sensory  nerves,  if  you  please — and  this  impression  reaches 
and  influences  the  higher  cerebral  centers.  It  accomplishes  its 
work  in  accordance  with  the  normal  physiological  processes. 

It  may  seem  queer  to  you  at  first  glance  that  we  can  influence 
the  physiological  processes  by  psychological  methods.  But  all  med- 
icines produce  their  results  by  their  influence  upon  function,  even 
when  taken  into  the  stomach  or  applied  hypodermatically.  Med- 
icine used  locally  as  a  means  of  suggestion  is  a  powerful  functional 
stimulant.  By  it  we  can  inhibit  certain  brain  centers  and  call 
into  play  an  increased  activity  of  others.  We  quiet  nervousness, 
we  relieve  pain,  we  restore  sleep,  and  we  encourage  secretion,  nu- 
trition, and  excretion. 


84  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

All  therapeutic  measures  can  accomplish  their  results  only  by 
acting  in  conjunction  with  those  inherent  properties  and  forces 
within  the  biological  element  of  the  organism.  Our  internal  med- 
ication acts  only  upon  function.  Medicine  used  internally  or 
externally,  whether  for  its  physiological  or  psychic  effect,  can, 
through  the  suggestion  giving  it  its  psychological  potency,  stimu- 
late the  function  of  every  organ  in  the  body. 

Every  center  of  activity  in  the  brain  can  be  influenced  by  sug- 
gestion. Every  organ  in  the  body  and  all  bodily  functions  are 
under  the  control  of  the  nervous  centers.  Every  element  of  the 
organism  has  its  center  of  activity  in  the  brain.  All  these  we  can 
influence  by  suggestion,  and  we  can  use  medicine  and  surgery, 
and  all  other  therapeutic  measures,  not  only  for  the  effects  pro- 
duced by  their  own  physical  influence  upon  the  organism,  but  also 
as  a  means  of  successfully  combating  the  disturbing  psychic  factor 
through  the  influence  of  those  measures  upon  the  mind.  Every 
physician  uses  these  measures,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  every 
day  of  his  life. 

Do  not  understand  by  the  ground  that  I  have  taken  that  I  am 
a  therapeutic  nihilist.  I  am,  first  and  last,  a  regular  physician, 
anxious  for  any  therapeutic  aid  by  any  means  whatsoever  that  will 
help  to  alleviate  human  suffering  and  cure  disease.  We  can  dem- 
onstrate the  physiological  action  of  our  medicinal  agents  upon  the 
physical  organism,  even  in  unconscious  persons  and  animals,  as 
impressively  and  conclusively  as  by  a  slap  or  a  kick  we  can  dem- 
onstrate to  the  person  who  denies  it  our  ability  to  use  our  hands 
and  feet.  But,  understand,  I  am  talking  to  you  about  the  psychic 
factor  in  therapeutics,  pointing  out  its  value  as  an  important 
therapeutic  adjunct,  to  be  used  in  conjunction  with  any  measure — 
medicinal,  surgical,  or  otherwise — that  will  help  to  alleviate  suf- 
fering and  cure  disease,  or  that  will  put  the  individual  in  such 
condition  that  a  cure  may  take  place. 

This  science,  as  applied  in  the  practice  of  medicine,  is  based 
upon  these  premises :  there  is  inherent  in  mankind  a  psychic  power 
or  mental  force  presiding  over  the  functions,  conditions,  and  sen- 
sations of  his  body,  and  this  inherent  potentiality,  which  is  a 
property  of  the  cells  that  compose  the  complex  mechanism  of  the 


HYPNOTISM    DEMONSTRATED.  85 

animal  physiology,  can,  under  proper  conditions,  be  evoked  and 
controlled  at  will  and  applied  to  the  alleviation  of  human  suffering. 

What  that  inherent  quality  of  force  represented  by  each  indi- 
vidual cell  in  the  human  body  is  has  in  ages  past  been  called  by 
many  names.  It  has  been  designated  by  such  expressions  as  the 
"vis  medicatrix  naturae,"  "the  resident  energy  within,"  "neuric 
energy,"  and,  in  the  terms  of  psychology,  "the  subconscious 
mind,"  "the  subjective  mind,"  "the  subliminal  consciousness,"  etc. 

Tennyson  referred  to  the  same  incomprehensible  life  principle 
when  he  pulled  a  little  flower  from  a  crannied  wall  and  said : 

Little  flower — but  if  I  could  understand 
What  you  are,  root  and  all,  and  all  in  all, 
I  should  know  what  God  and  man  is. 

The  tendency  of  modern  science  is  toward  the  possibility  of 
reducing  all  phenomena,  physical  as  well  as  psychical,  to  a  common 
cause. 

Verworn  remarks  that  "the  attempt  to  explain  the  mystery  that 
surrounds  living  substances — the  substance  that  nourishes  itself, 
breathes,  moves,  grows,  reproduces,  and  develops — has  exerted 
from  the  earliest  times  a  peculiar  stimulus  upon  the  mind  of  in- 
quiring thinkers." 

But  while  we  do  not  know  what  that  inherent  quality  or  force, 
as  represented  by  the  individual  cell,  is,  neither  do  we  know  what 
electricity  is,  nor  what  matter  is,  in  any  form  in  its  ultimate 
analysis,  but  we  do  know  something,  not  all,  of  the  laws  that 
govern  these  of  nature's  forces,  and  by  conforming  to  these  laws 
we  are  better  enabled  to  make  our  struggle  for  existence. 

By  conforming  to  this  psychological  law  we  can  get  results  in 
the  alleviation  of  human  suffering,  and  as  broadminded  men  we 
want  to  make  use  of  anything  that  will  help  us  to  grapple  with 
the  problems  of  health  and  disease. 

Just  as  steam  and  electricity  were  governed  by  nature's  laws 
that  existed  forever,  and  required  only  science  to  make  use  of  them, 
so  has  psychic  law  existed  forever,  and  a  better  understanding  of, 
conformity  to,  and  appropriation  of  this  law  are  destined  to  make 
the  same  revolution  in  the  practice  of  medicine  as  have  been 


86  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

effected  by  steam  and  electricity  in  methods  of  travel,  manufacture, 
and  communication. 

The  intelligence  of  our  age  demands  that  the  higher  evolutionary 
factors  of  human  personality,  call  them  by  whatever  name  you  will, 
be  recognized,  and  their  truths  be  appropriated  for  the  welfare, 
health,  and  happiness  of  our  patients. 


CHAPTER  VI. 
PRACTICAL  THEORETICAL  CONSIDERATIONS. 

For  our  present  discussion,  let  us  regard  man  as  being  a  living, 
thinking  entity — a  functionating  organism  that  nourishes  himself, 
breathes,  moves,  grows,  and  reproduces,  adapting  himself  to  his 
environment,  both  acting  and  reacting  under  the  influence  of  in- 
numerable internal  and  external  stimuli. 

His  body,  with  its  structures,  organs,  and  parts,  is  composed 
of  millions  on  millions  of  cells,  each  one  of  which,  however  much 
it  may  differ  in  structure  and  function  from  those  belonging  to 
other  organs  and  tissues  than  its  own,  is  a  lineal  descendant  from 
a  single  primordial  cell.  Just  how  the  mind  of  man  is  related  to 
the  brain  and  nervous  system  is  as  yet  far  from  being  clear,  but 
we  do  know  that  as  the  brain  is,  so  is  the  mind,  and  that  a  healthy, 
well-developed  mind  corresponds  to  a  healthy,  well-trained,  well- 
developed,  and  well-nourished  nervous  system. 

In  the  use  of  such  expressions  as  "soul"  and  "spirit"  in  this 
discussion,  it  is  with  the  same  meaning  as  the  word  "mind,"  and 
to  suggest  that  the  individual  has  emotion,  feeling,  and  will  as  well 
as  intellect. 

Emotion  and  will  are  frequently  regarded  as  spiritual,  intellect 
as  mental,  and  sensation  as  physical,  but  they  are  all  qualities  of 
the  same  individual  body,  mind,  soul,  or  spirit.  So,  in  the  sense 
that  I  use  the  term  "mind,"  let  it  be  held  to  embrace  or  include  the 
whole  of  man's  psychic  or  mental  activities,  conscious  and  sub- 
conscious, voluntary  and  involuntary. 

Let  us  think  of  the  human  mind  as  being  manifested  by  or 
through  the  sum  total  of  the  functions  of  every  cell  in  the  body, 
expressed  in  thought,  feeling,  volition,  action,  motion,  perception, 
conception,  memory,  etc. 

When  I  say  action  and  motion,  think  not  only  of  objective, 
conscious,  external  action  and  motion — such  as  feeling,  seeing, 

87 


88  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

hearing,  reading,  talking,  walking,  or  other  conscious  sensations 
and  acts — but  also  of  subjective,  unconscious,  internal  action  and 
motion,  including  even  the  action  of  the  lowest  cell  in  the  body  in 
its  ability  to  take  in  new  matter,  fix  it,  change  it,  and  throw  it  off. 

In  one  sense,  each  cell  seems  to  have  a  mind  of  its  own,  for  it 
goes  on  performing  its  special  functions,  be  it  brain  cell,  gland, 
muscle,  bone,  or  skin  cell.  Yet  no  one  of  these  microscopic  organ- 
isms is  capable  of  independent  existence.  Each  has  its  duty  to 
perform,  but  each  in  turn  is  dependent,  at  least  in  a  very  large 
degree,  for  its  own  existence  upon  the  activity  of  other  cells  of  the 
body,  the  functionating  of  which  constitutes  the  complex  mechanism 
of  the  animal  physiology. 

Conscious  Mind. — Man,  as  an  entity,  has  conscious  psychic  or 
mental  activities,  which  correspond  to  the  functions  of  the  motor 
area  of  the  brain — the  gray  matter,  the  higher  centers,  the  volun- 
tary processes.  The  functionating  of  these  we  designate  as  the  con- 
scious mind.  These  centers  respond  to  stimuli  that  reach  them 
through  the  five  special  senses — sight,  hearing,  feeling,  taste,  and 
smell — and  through  these  all  the  bodily  functions  can  be  reached 
and  influenced.  Here  is  the  seat  of  all  voluntary  action,  the  home 
of  reason  and  the  higher  intellectual  faculties. 

So  far  as  we  know,  our  higher  mental  functions  seem  to  have 
their  immediate  seats  in  the  cortex  of  the  brain,  and  of  these 
mental  functions  the  anterior  frontal  lobes  appear  to  have  the 
power  of  inhibition.  This  is  as  near  as  we  can  come  to  absolute 
localization  of  the  mental  faculties. 

Articulation  is  a  motor  act,  and,  in  common  with  other  motor 
functions,  is  governed  by  groups  of  cells  in  Broca's  convolutions; 
but  the  mind,  which  is  symbolized  by  language,  giving  expression 
to  our  thoughts,  desires,  ideas,  aspirations  and  volitions,  is  a 
psychic  phenomenon  dependent  upon  the  entire  brain  and  nervous 
system.  All  forms  of  life  that  have  ideas,  however  crude  they 
may  be,  have  the  power  of  symbolizing  them.  Language  is  but 
the  symbolization  of  ideas,  and  even  the  lower  forms  of  life  have 
a  language  of  their  own,  however  elementary  and  primitive  they 
may  be. 

The  failure  of  memory,  as  we  know,  is  dependent  upon  the  dis- 


PRACTICAL   THEORETICAL   CONSIDERATIONS.  89 

solution  of  the  entire  nervous  system.  The  latest  acquired,  and 
consequently  the  least  organized,  mental  attributes  disappearing 
first  indicates  that  the  mind,  as  exhibited  by  speech  through  the 
combined  effort  of  feeling,  memory,  desire,  and  will,  is  an  acquire- 
ment dependent  upon  environment,  and  quality  and  mode  of 
neuron  organization. 

Our  conscious  mind,  then,  seems  to  be  an  outgrowth  of  educa- 
tion and  experience,  resulting  from  the  conditions  that  environ 
us  during  our  struggle  for  existence  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave. 
This  is  the  mind  that  we  use  in  our  normal,  waking  consciousness, 
as  we  go  in  the  smooth,  even  tenor  of  our  ways,  attending  to  our 
respective  vocations  in  life,  not  dominated  by  fear,  or  anger,  or 
emotion,  but  controlled  by  reason  and  will.  This,  I  say,  is  the 
conscious  mind  and  represents  the  higher  brain  centers  in  action. 

Hypnotism  is  the  process  or  method  of  using  suggestion  to  in- 
fluence the  action  of  the  conscious  mind,  /fey  suggestion  the  func- 
tions of  the  motor  area  of  the  brain  can  be  soothed,  quieted,  made 
still,  passive,  inactive,  at  rest,  or  placed  in  abeyance.  As  an  in- 
dividual the  subject  ceases  to  use  these  brain  centers  and  consents 
to  allow  you  to  use  them  for  him,  and  through  them  to  reach  and 
influence  the  lower  nervous  system,  which  presides  over  the  in- 
voluntary physiological  processes  of  the  body. 

Hypnotism,  in  one  sense,  is  induced  sleep.  The  only  difference 
between  induced  sleep  and  natural  sleep  is  that  in  natural  sleep 
you  are  completely  oblivious  to  the  outside  world,  while  in  induced, 
or  hypnotic,  sleep  the  subject  is,  as  it  were,  asleep  to  every  one 
except  the  person  who  induced  the  sleep.  He  is  en  rapport  with 
the  operator — in  relation  with  him.  He  hears  and  acts  upon  the 
operator's  suggestions,  but  appears  to  pay  no  attention  to  any  one 
else  than  the  person  who  induced  the  condition  referred  to  as 
the  hypnotic  state. 

When  the  conscious  mind  is  rendered  passive,  as  when  an  in- 
dividual is  hypnotized,  or  in  a  condition  of  increased  susceptibility 
to  suggestion,  we  can  better  reach  and  influence  all  those  psychic 
activities  which  lie  below  the  threshold  of  consciousness,  the  study 
of  which  throws  much  light  upon  the  subject  at  hand. 


90  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

Subconscious  Mind. — All  those  psychic  activities  which  are 
found  below  the  threshold  of  consciousness  correspond  to  the  func- 
tions of  all  the  involuntary  physiological  processes — the  functions 
of  the  lower  neuron  systems,  the  functions  of  the  ganglionic  and 
sympathetic  nervous  systems,  and  the  functions  of  the  lowest  cell 
in  the  body  as-it  plays  its  part  in  the  game  of  the  life  of  the  entire 
physical  organism.  These  functions  we  designate  the  subconscious 
mind. 

Moreover,  the  subconscious  mind,  which  corresponds  to  the  func- 
tions of  the  vegetative  brain  and  nervous  system,  perceives  by 
intuition;  it  is  the  storehouse  of  subjective  memory,  and  is  greatly 
influenced  by  the  emotions.  It  presides  over  the  functions,  con- 
ditions, and  sensations  of  the  body;  over  all  the  vegetative  or 
nutritive  processes — over  digestion,  secretion,  excretion,  nutrition, 
waste,  respiration,  calorification ;  in  short,  over  all  cell  life  function 
and  development. 

When  the  conscious  mind  is  inhibited  or  soothed  into  passivity, 
as  in  the  hypnotic  state,  this  subconscious  mind  is  amenable  to 
influence  by  suggestion.  It  can  be  influenced  by  suggestion  with- 
out hypnotism,  but  in  the  hypnotic  state  there  is  an  increased 
amenability  or  susceptibility  of  the  subconscious  mind  to  sugges- 
tion, and  also  an  increase  in  its  power  to  execute  an  idea  or 
suggestion  through  its  control  over  the  physiological  processes  of 
the  body. 

In  the  hypnotic  state  we  can  influence  and  make  such  impres- 
sions upon  the  subconscious  mind  as  will  be  fully  carried  out  in 
its  influence  over  the  physical  organism,  and  the  fact  that  the  sub- 
conscious mind  does  preside  over  the  functions,  conditions,  and 
sensations  of  the  body,  and  is  more  amenable  to  suggestion  when 
the  conscious  mind  is  inhibited,  gives  us  in  a  nutshell  the  reason 
why  the  results  are  obtained  from  hypnotic  suggestion  or  sug- 
gestion in  the  hypnotic  state. 

How  do  we  prove  that  the  subconscious  mind  is  amenable  to 
suggestion  ?  For  upon  the  truthfulness  of  this  proposition  is  based 
the  entire  structure  of  the  science  of  suggestive 'therapeutics. 

First,  we  use  suggestion  upon  the  conscious  mind.  This  we  do 
when  we  hypnotize  a  man,  as  was  demonstrated  in  a  previous 


PRACTICAL   THEORETICAL   CONSIDERATIONS.  91 

chapter.  Then,  by  suggestion  in  the  hypnotic  state,  we  can  better 
reach  and  influence  the  deeper  thresholds  of  consciousness. 

After  an  individual  is  hypnotized,  you  will  remember  that  we 
held  up  his  arm  and  suggested  to  him  that  when  we  counted  three 
that  arm  would  be  stiff  and  that  he  could  not  take  it  down.  We 
challenged  him,  "You  can't  take  it  down."  The  arm  remained 
stiff,  showing  that  voluntary  function  was  here  influenced  or  in- 
hibited by  suggestion ;  that  the  conscious  mind  which  presided  over 
this  motor  function  was  amenable  to  our  suggestion. 

Then  it  was  suggested  that  after  the  medicine  had  been  applied 
to  his  arm  it  would  be  dead  and  would  have  no  feeling  in  it;  and 
a  pin  was  thrust  into  his  arm  without  the  slightest  evidence  of 
pain,  showing  that  the  subconscious  mind,  which  presides  over  the 
sensations  of  the  body,  was  also  amenable  to  suggestion. 

Then,  that  both  the  conscious  and  subconscious  minds  were 
amenable  to  suggestion  was  proved  by  suggesting  to  him  that  when 
he  stood  up  and  we  counted  three  he  would  be  stiff — so  stiff  that 
we  could  lay  him  across  two  chairs  and  he  would  not  bend.  We 
then  caused  him  to  sustain  the  weight  of  from  two  to  four  hundred 
pounds  without  the  slightest  inconvenience. 

A  further  demonstration  that  the  subconscious  mind  presides 
over  sensation  and  is  amenable  to  suggestion  was  given  when  we 
suggested  to  the  individual  that  his  lip  was  dead  and  had  no  feel- 
ing in  it,  and  a  pin  was  thrust  through  his  lip,  not  only  without 
the  slightest  evidence  of  pain,  but  without  producing  bleeding. 

So  we  see  that  the  mind  vof  man,  both  conscious  and  subconscious, 
both  voluntary  and  involuntary,  is  amenable  to  suggestion,  and 
that  suggestion  to  the  voluntary  waking  consciousness  is  as  much 
hypnotism  as  is  suggestion  in  that  increased  condition  of  sug- 
gestibility usually  referred  to  as  the  hypnotic  state;  that  any 
influence  brought  to  bear  upon  the  mind  of  any  individual  by  any 
means  whatsoever  is  hypnotism;  that  the  individual  is  hypnotized 
by  suggestion,  and  that  an  individual  with  his  eyes  wide  open, 
thinking  he  is  in  possession  of  all  his  conscious  faculties,  is  fre- 
quently as  much  amenable  to  suggestion  as  is  the  subject  in  that 
sleeplike  condition  usually  referred  to  as  the  hypnotic  state. 

The  conscious  mind  presides  over  the  voluntary  functions:  it 


92  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

corresponds  to  the  functions  of  the  gray  matter,  the  motor  area  of. 
the  brain,  the  higher  intellectual  faculties;  but  in  the  presence 
of  a  stronger  personality,  be  it  an  attorney  at  law,  a  minister,  a 
teacher,  a  salesman,  or  a  physician,  it  is  amenable  to  influence  and 
is  controlled  by  suggestion. 

The  hypnotic  state,  when  induced  by  the  method  that  we  em- 
ploy with  the  medicine,  is  always  induced  with  the  consent  of  the 
voluntary  waking  consciousness.  We  always  get  the  consent  and 
co-operation  of  the  will  of  the  individual  to  be  hypnotized;  but 
by  suggestion  without  a  sleeplike  condition,  as  is  used  by  all  classes 
of  individuals,  the  conscious  mind  may  be  stealthily  and  subtly 
dominated.  Hypnotic  suggestion,  however  employed  by  the  medi- 
cine method  which  we  have  demonstrated  and  described,  is  always 
used  with  the  individual's  consent. 

The  subconscious  mind  presides  not  only  over  the  involuntary 
functions,  but  over  all  cell  life  function  and  development.  I  have 
frequently  produced  copious  emesis  by  suggesting  to  an  individual 
that  he  had  taken  ipecac,  thus  showing  the  effect  of  suggestion 
upon  the  involuntary  physiological  processes.  In  a  number  of 
instances  I  have  had  physicians  accomplish  this  result  in  my  class 
work  by  suggestions  made  by  them  to  the  subject  that  they  had 
hypnotized. 

I  say  by  suggestion  we  can  influence  cell  life.  In  not  less  than 
one  hundred  instances  have  I  taken  a  hat  pin  from  a  lady's  hat 
and  without  sterilization  thrust  it  through  a  large  fold  of  the  cheek 
of  a  person  without  the  slightest  ill  results  following.  In  several 
hundred  instances  have  I  thrust  a  smaller  pin  without  sterilization 
through  the  face  or  an  arm  of  an  individual  without  the  least 
untoward  results. 

We  certainly  can  not  influence  the  bacteria  upon  the  pin;  then 
we  must  increase  the  resistive  power  of  the  cells  in  the  face  in 
some  way.  Whether  it  is  done  by  encouraging  leucocytosis  or  the 
migration  of  phagocytes,  or  whether  we  increase  the  resistive  power 
of  protoplasm  direct,  has  never  been  explained.  Theorize  upon 
that  proposition  as  you  will;  its  meaning  has  a  far  deeper  import 
than  appears  at  first  upon  the  surface.  To  me  it  indicates  that 
we  can  increase  the  resistive  power — life,  strength,  and  energy — 


PRACTICAL    THEORETICAL    CONSIDERATIONS.  93 

of  every  cell  in  the  body  by  suggestion,  both  with  and  without 
hypnotism;  so  that  in  the  fight  between  the  etiological  factors  of 
disease,  which  is  ever  being  made  by  the  cells  of  the  body,  we  can 
help  these  cells  in  their  struggle  against  pathogenic  germs  or  other 
etiological  factors  of  disease. 

Physiologists  have  ever  endowed  the  brain  centers  with  a  pecul- 
iar form  of  energy  of  their  own,  indefinitely  referred  to  by  such 
expressions  as  neuric  energy,  nerve  force,  and  the  like.  These 
higher  centers  occupy  a  relation  to  the  general  cells  comprising 
the  physical  body  similar  to  that  occupied  by  a  dynamo  to  a  piece 
of  machinery.  By  suggestion  we  can  convert  potential  energy 
into  dynamic  energy,  latent  energy  into  moving  energy,  and  in  this 
way  increase  the  resistive  power  of  every  cell  in  the  body. 

I  am  aware  that  some  physicians  will  shrug  their  shoulders  and 
raise  their  hands  to  heaven  in  protest  against  the  foregoing  state- 
ment. It  goes  against  the  grain  to  present  an  idea  so  completely 
at  variance  with  their  preconceived  opinions.  But  if  they  will 
reflect  and  verify,  they  will  be  forced  to  bow  down  before  the 
evidence  of  facts. 

I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  an  instrument  previously  infected 
with  a  culture  of  anthrax  bacilli  can  be  thrust  with  impunity  into 
the  flesh  of  a  hypnotized  subject,  neither  do  I  mean  to  give  license 
for  any  failure  to  observe  the  strictest  rules  of  asepsis,  which  has 
been  the  means  of  the  brilliant  achievements  that  have  crowned 
the  efforts  of  modern  surgery;  but  let  the  facts  in  the  case  speak 
for  themselves.  Let  us  hew  close  to  the  line  of  truth,  let  the  chips 
fall  where  they  may. 

I  have  in  at  least  five  hundred  instances  taken  a  pin  that  has 
not  been  previously  sterilized  and  thrust  it  through  a  fold  of  the 
skin  in  the  face  or  arm,  and  with  but  one  single  exception  have 
never  observed  the  least  unpleasant  results.  Even  the  exception 
in  this  case  only  goes  to  prove  the  efficacy  and  power  of  suggestion 
in  the  accomplishment  or  support  of  the  position  that  I  have  taken. 

In  one  instance  I  used  a  small  blade  of  my  pocket  knife  and 
jabbed  it  under  a  fold  of  the  skin  for  an  inch  without  soreness  re- 
sulting. The  antiseptic  property  of  the  blood  is  not  to  be  discredited 
in  making  allowance  for  the  result,  nor  elimination  by  bleeding. 


94  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

but  in  this  case  the  arm  bled  only  a  few  drops.  On  an  average, 
where  a  pin  was  used  the  arm  did  not  bleed  one  time  in  fifty. 
Nor  do  I  forget  the  natural  resistive  power  of  the  cells  themselves 
in  a  healthy  individual,  and  this,  in  my  opinion,  can  by  suggestion 
be  strengthened  to  a  wonderful  extent. 

The  one  exception  where  the  arm  became  sore  was  in  the  case 
of  a  physician  for  whom  I  gave  a  treatment  by  hypnotic  suggestion 
and  relieved  him  of  a  tinnitus  aurium  of  twelve  years'  standing. 
He  was  an  extremely  neurotic  individual,  and  when  I  awakened 
him  after  the  treatment  for  his  tinnitus  and  asked  if  anything  had 
hurt  him  in  the  least,  he  replied,  "No." 

"Did  you  know  that  I  had  thrust  a  pin  into  the  flesh  of  your 
arm?" 

"  No ;  you  did  not  or  I  should  have  felt  it, ' '  said  he. 

"Do  you  feel  it  now?"  I  asked.  "No,  not  in  the  least,'"  said 
he.  ' '  You  did  not  stick  me  really,  did  you  ? ' ' 

"Yes,"  I  replied,  "and  here  it  is  now,"  and  I  pushed  back  his 
cuff  and  let  him  see  the  pin  yet  through  the  fold  of  the  skin. 

' '  Take  that  out, ' '  said  he,  in  a  most  excited  manner. 

His  tinnitus  was  relieved,  and  after  one  year,  when  I  last  heard 
from  him,  had  not  returned.  Yet  he  seemed  offended  because  I, 
a  physician,  should  have  taken  such  a  risk  as  to  thrust  an  unclean 
instrument  into  his  flesh. 

In  the  afternoon  he  had  a  red,  painful  arm,  with  a  general 
temperature  of  103°  F.,  and  he  asked  that  I  hypnotize  him  again 
and  get  rid  of  that  condition.  I  hypnotized  him  and  gave  him 
appropriate  suggestions  to  relieve  his  pain,  quiet  his  nervousness, 
and  give  him  a  good  night's  sleep.  After  awakening  him  I  assured 
him  that  his  temperature  was  due  to  malaria.  He  took  twenty- 
five  grains  of  quinin  that  evening  and  was  all  right  the  next  morn- 
ing. 

This,  I  say,  was  the  only  case  in  my  extensive  experience  where 
there  was  the  slightest  unpleasant  symptom  after  sticking  a  pin 
without  sterilization  into  the  flesh,  and  I  am  quite  sure  that  I  have 
made  that  experiment  not  less  than  five  hundred  times. 

It  has  been  reported  that  a  physician  jabbed  a  dull  lead  pencil 
into  the  flesh  of  a  hypnotized  subject  and  produced  an  infection. 


PRACTICAL   THEORETICAL,   CONSIDERATIONS.  -    95 

Such  a  procedure  would  destroy  the  cells  in  that  part,  and  is  not 
at  all  a  parallel  case  to  where  a  sharp  instrument  is  used  and  proper 
suggestions  given  to  influence  the  result. 

These  facts  have  led  me  to  conclude  that,  through  the  influences 
exerted  by  the  higher  centers  of  the  brain  over  the  vasomotor 
neuro  regulation  of  the  blood  supply  to  the  part,  increased  leuco- 
cytosis  results,  and  that  the  theory  of  phagocytic  resistance,  as 
advanced  by  Metschnikoff,  is  an  important  and  constant  factor  in 
natural  immunity.  According  to  this  author,  leucocytes,  having 
arrived  at  the  spot  where  the  intruders  are  found,  seize  them  after 
the  manner  of  the  ameba  and  with  their  bodies  subject  them  to 
intracellular  digestion. 

The  facts  mentioned  in  regard  to  the  case  of  the  physician  whose 
autosuggestions  were  adverse  and  most  unfavorable,  as  against  at 
least  five  hundred  cases  where  suggestions  were  given  in  the  hyp- 
notic state  that  would  possibly  favor  this  natural  physiological 
process  of  immunity,  lead  me  to  conclude  that  cell  activity  is  in- 
creased or  retarded  in  even  a  local  area  by  suggestion.  We  know 
that  every  cell  in  the  body,  through  the  complex  mechanism  of 
animal  physiology,  is  influenced  by  centers  of  activity  in  the  brain. 
These  centers  can  be  stimulated  and  encouraged  into  action  by 
suggestion.  We  can  convert  potential  energy  into  dynamic  energy, 
latent  energy  into  moving  energy,  and  in  this  way  all  the  physio- 
logical processes  can  be  increased  or  encouraged,  and  by  suggestion, 
both  with  and  without  hypnotism,  we  can  aid  the  cells  of  the  body 
in  the  fight  against  the  etiological  factors  of  disease,  whether  due 
to  pathogenic  germs  or  other  causes. 

The  physician,  then,  in  the  light  of  such  indisputable  facts,  is 
a  factor  either  for  good  or  harm  in  the  sick-room.  How  often 
is  it  the  case  that  his  training  in  the  pathological  laboratory  so 
fills  him  subconsciously  with  fear  of  pathogenic  germs  that  it  com- 
pletely offsets  his  confidence  in  the  natural  resistive  powers  of 
his  patient;  like  a  dog  frightened  and  cowed,  he  goes  into  the 
fight  with  a  drooped  head  and  his  tail  tucked  in,  exercising  a  most 
depressing  influence  upon  his  patient,  rather  than  with  a  sufficient 
faith  in  the  potentialities  inherent  in  the  living  cells  that  comprise 
the  physical  organism  to  encourage  them  into  action. 


96  SUGGESTIVE 'THERAPEUTICS. 

Has  it  not  often  been  your  experience  to  see  a  patient  Very  sick, 
so  that,  from  the  pathological  condition  there  existing,  reason 
would  cause  you  to  doubt  the  possibility  of  his  recovery?  But  he 
had  faith  in  you,  expected  to  get  well,  was  hopeful  and  optimistic, 
and  that  encouraged  you  both  to  encourage  him  and  to  do  your 
best  for  him.  Later  on,  when  he  was  safely  on  the  road  to  re- 
covery, when  he  was  thanking  you  for  what  you  had  done  for  him, 
you  gratefully  reminded  him  that  he  was  getting  well  on  account 
of  his  courage  and  bravery,  and  that  had  it  not  been  for  his 
will  power  and  determination  he  never  would  have  recovered. 
You  really  felt  that  your  services  played  a  small  part  in  his 
recovery. 

On  the  other  hand,  you  have  had  patients  who  were  not  at  all 
seriously  sick,  so  far  as  their  apparent  pathological  conditions 
would  indicate,  yet  from  the  very  first  visit  you  realized  that  you 
had  failed  to  get  en  rapport  with  them.  You  realized  that  you 
"did  not  make  good,"  and  upon  your  return  the  next  morning 
you  found  that  he  was  nervous  and  had  not  slept  well  that  night; 
there  was  an  increase  in  pulse  rate,  his  respirations  were  quick- 
ened, and  he  was  overanxious  about  himself,  and  from  this  con- 
dition he  continued  to  go  on  from  bad  to  worse  until,  finally,  upon 
your  last  visit,  when  you  realized  that  he  would  not  recover — 
chagrined,  humiliated,  and  mortified— you  could  not  but  feel  that 
he  had  failed  to  recover  on  account  of  the  morbid  mental  attitude 
taken  toward  his  condition  in  its  incipiency.  He  died  for  the  lack 
of  the  will  to  get  well. 

The  experience  of  hundreds  and  hundreds  of  physicians  co- 
incides with  the  cases  just  cited.  Why  is  it  that  the  mental  atti- 
tude of  an  individual  plays  such  an  important  part  either  toward 
recovery  or  nonrecovery?  For  this  reason:  everybody's  subcon- 
scious mind  is  constantly  amenable  to  the  influence,  suggestion, 
and  control  of  his  conscious  mind,  and,  when  you  fully  comprehend 
this  proposition,  you  see  very  plainly  that  every  one  is  treating 
himself  by  selfsuggestion  all  the  time,  whether  he  realizes  it  or  not. 
Your  own  thoughts,  your  own  beliefs,  your  own  predominating 
mental  characteristics,  whether  you  will  it  or  not,  whether  you 
believe  it  or  not,  whether  you  know  it  or  not,  are  the  suggestions 


PRACTICAL   THEORETICAL   CONSIDERATIONS.  97 

that  are  ever  influencing  your  subconscious  mind  either  for  good 
or  harm. 

So  much  so  is  that  true,  that  you  can  put  it  down  as  a  safe 
proposition  that  the  individual  who  is  hopeful,  optimistic,  and 
cheerful,  constantly  looking  on  the  bright  side  of  life,  carrying 
sunshine  and  cheer  into  the  lives  of  others — that  such  an  individual, 
by  his  mental  attitude,  conduces  to  the  health  and  strength  and 
well-being  of  his  own  physical  organism  as  well. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  individual  who  is  pessimistic,  despond- 
ent, and  blue,  having  morbid  fears  about  his  own  physical  condi- 
tion, worrying  over  the  affairs  of  life,  unduly  emotional,  pining 
and  complaining — such  an  individual,  by  his  mental  attitude,  has 
a  wrecking,  weakening,  ruinous  effect,  not  only  upon  his  own 
physical  organization,  but  upon  that  of  others. 

As  we  pointed  out  in  a  previous  chapter,  emotional  conditions 
of  a  hopeful,  optimistic,  and  cheerful  kind  encourage  anabolism, 
or  constructive  metamorphosis,  a  building  up  of  the  cells  of  the 
body;  while  depressing  emotional  conditions — worry,  fear,  envy, 
anger,  jealousy,  and  such  like — encourage  catabolism,  or  destruc- 
tive metamorphosis,  a  tearing  down  of  the  cells  of  the  body. 

In  the  study  of  the  etiology  of  neurasthenia  and  allied  condi- 
tions, including  all  functional  disturbances — and  their  name  is 
legion — selfsuggestion  enters  into  these  cases  as  a  causative  factor 
that  is  of  a  far  deeper  import  than  is  generally  recognized ;  and  in 
treating  this  class  of  cases,  as  well  as  for  the  nervous  element  of 
any  disease,  acute  or  chronic,  surgical  or  otherwise,  it  is  our  duty 
as  physicians  to  make  such  impressions  upon  the  conscious  minds 
of  our  patients  in  our  daily  association  with  them  as  would  indi- 
rectly influence  the  subconscious  mind  through  autosuggestion.  At 
least  we  must  make  the  patient  feel  that  we  understand  his  case; 
that  we  are  especially  interested  in  him;  that  we  are  giving  him 
due  consideration,  and  as  far  as  possible  we  should  hold  out  a 
strong  belief  or  expectancy  that  he  will  get  well.  Just  in  propor- 
tion as  we  keep  him  cheerful,  hopeful,  and  optimistic,  just  so  far 
shall  we  help  him  on  the  road  to  recovery. 

Think  of  these  two  minds  as  two  sets  of  men  upon  a  war  vessel. 
The  men  upon  the  upper  deck  give  their  attention  to  the  fleet  over 


98  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

yonder.  They  give  their  attention  to  the  objective  world.  These 
are  performing  the  function  of  the  conscious  mind.  The  men  be- 
low deck  give  their  attention  to  the  internal  machinery  of  the  ship, 
paying  no  attention  whatever  to  the  outside  world.  They  repre- 
sent the  subconscious  mind.  Their  respective  duties  are  entirely 
separate  and  independent,  yet  the  men  below  stand  ever  ready  to 
obey  the  dictates,  or  orders,  or  signals  from  the  men  above. 

Every  human  being  is  giving  orders  that  will  encourage  the 
performance  of  every  organic  function  every  minute  and  hour  of 
his  life,  or  he  is  giving  orders  that  will  inhibit,  retard,  and  weaken 
the  involuntary  psychic  activities  or  nervous  functions.  So  you 
see  that  suggestion  is  used  both  with  and  without  hypnotism,  and 
that  any  influence  brought  to  bear  upon  the  conscious  mind  of 
your  patient  indirectly  reaches  his  subconscious  mind.  We  are 
using  it  every  day  of  our  lives  for  the  good  or  harm  of  ourselves 
and  for  the  good  or  harm  of  our  patients. 

To  show  you  the  influence  of  the  mind  upon  the  bodily  func- 
tions, I  will  cite  one  illustration.  I  was  once  talking  to  a  physician 
about  hypnotism  or  suggestion  when  a  band  stopped  in  front  of 
his  office  and  began  to  play.  In  a  jocular  way  he  remarked,  "I 
should  like  to  see  you  hypnotize  that  band  and  stop  it  from  play- 
ing." "All  right,"  said  I,  "come  and  watch  the  procedure."  I 
procured  three  lemons,  and  gave  a  half  of  each  to  as  many  little 
boys  on  the  street,  instructing  them  to  walk  round  and  round  the 
band,  sucking  the  lemons  and  making  faces  at  the  musicians.  The 
result  was  such  an  increase  in  the  secretion  of  their  salivary  glands 
that  the  men  were  compelled  to  stop  and  swallow  or  empty  their 
instruments  of  saliva.  They  were  unable  to  continue  their  music 
and  the  little  boys  were  put  to  flight. 

An  individual  with  a  large  "bay  window"  is  usually  a  man 
who  gives  full  appreciation  to  the  thought  of  the  dinner  hour,  the 
breakfast  hour,  the  lunch  hour.  This  pleasurable  anticipation  of 
the  approaching  meal  time  encourages  the  free  flow  of  blood  to 
his  gastric  mucous  membrane,  with  a  result  that  he  has  a  plentiful 
supply  of  gastric  juice,  a  good  appetite,  a  good  digestion,  and  a 
healthy  physique. 

On  the  other  hand,  our  cadaverous-looking  brother  usually  ap- 


PRACTICAL   THEORETICAL   CONSIDERATIONS.  99 

preaches  his  meal  hours  with  pessimistic  forebodings,  and  goes  to 
his  home  at  meal  time  more  as  a  matter  of  duty  than  otherwise; 
thus  he  unfortunately  fails  to  encourage  this  passive  organ  suffi- 
ciently to  enable  it  to  secrete  sufficient  gastric  juice  to  give  him  an 
appetite  or  to  secure  a  perfectly  digested  meal. 

By  suggestion  we  can  influence  man 's  conscious  and  subconscious 
psychic  activities,  and  thus  every  organ  and  every  cell  in  the  body 
can  be  stimulated.  The  daily  visit  of  the  physician  to  his  patient 
is  one  of  the  most  important  therapeutic  factors  at  his  command 
through  the  very  influence  of  his  own  personality. 

Before  going  into  the  practical  application  of  the  theories  of 
hypnotic  or  therapeutic  suggestion,  I  desire  to  briefly  call  your 
attention  to  other  phases  of  this  subject,  which,  though  they  may 
not  appear  to  you  perfectly  scientific,  have  a  bearing  upon  the 
subject  at  hand  of  such  importance  that  it  can  not  be  ignored. 

We  remarked  in  the  outset  that  the  subconscious  mind  per- 
ceived by  intuition — that  it  was  the  storehouse  of  memory,  the  seat 
of  the  emotions,  and  presided  over  the  functions,  conditions,  and 
sensations  of  the  body.  So  far  we  have  been  elaborating  the  in- 
fluence of  the  subconscious  mind  over  the  functions,  conditions, 
and  sensations  of  the  body,  having  made  it  clear  that  when  the 
conscious  mind  was  inhibited  the  subconscious  mind  was  more 
amenable  or  susceptible  to  suggestion,  and  that  suggestions  given 
in  the  hypnotic  state  were  more  effective  and  lasting  in  certain 
selected  cases  than  suggestions  without  hypnotism.  We  also  made 
it  plain  that  the  conscious  mind  of  every  individual  was  amenable 
to  influence  by  suggestion,  and  that  any  influence  brought  to  bear 
upon  the  mind  of  an  individual  by  any  means  whatever  came  under 
the  broad  domain  of  suggestive  therapeutics. 

The  Subconscious  Mind  Perceives  by  Intuition. — It  is  now 
considered  that  thought  transference,  or  telepathy,  is  rendered 
possible  on  account  of  the  ability  of  the  subconscious  mind  of  one 
individual  to  be  impressed  or  influenced  by  another  mind  by  some 
means  apart  from  the  generally  recognized  modes  of  communica- 
tion. It  may  be  that  this  is  based  on  sympathy  existing  between 
two  persons  concerned,  and  deals  with  something  in  which  they 
are  mutually  interested.  Be  that  as  it  may,  that  there  should  be 


100  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

such  a  relation  between  two  individuals  of  congenial  habits  of 
thought  and  action  seems  to  me  to  be  no  more  unreasonable  than 
that  two  mechanical  instruments  delicately  and  harmoniously  at- 
tuned, the  one  to  the  other,  should  receive  electrical  vibrations 
through  air,  and  earth,  and  water  thousands  of  miles  apart,  by 
which  our  wonderful  system  of  wireless  telegraphy  has  been  per- 
fected. 

In  connection  with  this  phase  of  the  subject  I  am  at  present 
an  agnostic,  but  I  am  ever  ready-  to  stand  by  facts  as  I  find  them, 
hoping  that  some  day,  perhaps  not  far  distant,  some  of  the  prob- 
lems that  have  so  perplexed  honest  investigators  on  this  line  will 
be  explained  by  the  discovery  and  control  of  a  natural  law  that 
has  been  in  operation  forever,  and,  like  all  other  natural  laws,  only 
required  the  intelligence  of  man  to  appropriate  and  use  it  for  his 
welfare  and  happiness. 

I  have  had  some  demonstrations  and  observations  of  certain 
phases  of  this  subject  presented  to  me  which  have  led  me  to  certain 
conclusions  that  I  desire  to  bring  to  your  attention,  without  which 
it  would  be  impossible  to  intelligently  practice  suggestive  thera- 
peutics. 

I  once  took  a  young  man  whom  I  had  frequently  hypnotized, 
and,  while  in  the  hypnotic  state,  blindfolded  him.  I  wrote  upon 
a  piece  of  paper  the  following  suggestion:  "Go  to  the  mantel- 
piece and  get  the  baby's  photograph,  and  bring  it  to  me."  A  wit- 
ness who  was  present  at  the  time  read  the  suggestion.  Not  a  word 
was  spoken  more  than  to  tell  him  that,  when  I  counted  three,  I 
wanted  him  to  go  and  do  what  was  written  upon  the  piece  of  paper ; 
that  I  would  not  indicate  what  I  wished  him  to  do  by  look,  or 
gesture,  or  word,  but  would  constantly  think  of  it. 

I  then  removed  the  blindfold,  told  him  to  open  his  eyes  and 
do  what  was  ordered  on  the  piece  of  paper.  He  at  once  went  to 
the  mantelpiece,  put  his  hand  upon  the  first  photograph  nearest 
to  him,  which  was  the  wrong  one,  but  put  that  down;  then  to 
another,  which  he  also  put  down ;  and  lastly  he  took  the  baby's  pho- 
tograph indicated,  held  it  in  his  hand  and,  turning  around  with  a 
blank  expression  on  his  face,  handed  it  to  me.  "Good,"  said  I. 
"Be  seated  and  sleep  on." 


PRACTICAL,   THEORETICAL,   CONSIDERATIONS.  101 

At  this  juncture  a  winter  coat  was  thrown  over  his  face,  and 
I  wrote  on  another  piece  of  paper  that  he  would  go  to  a  washstand, 
thrust  his  hand  in  the  water  pitcher,  and  wash  his  hands,  which 
he  did.  I  again  wrote  on  another  piece  of  paper  that  he  would  take 
a  stool  upon  the  floor  and  turn  it  bottom  side  upward,  and  take 
a  seat  in  the  bottom.  This  being  done,  I  wrote  that  he  would  go 
to  a  lounge  in  the  room,  lie  flat  down  upon  his  face,  cover  his  head 
up  with  a  pillow,  and  go  to  sleep. 

Take  notice  that  all  these  suggestions  were  written — not  one 
word  being  spoken.  Each  suggestion  was  carried  out  precisely  as 
written  upon  the  piece  of  paper.  When  I  awakened  him  and  asked 
what  he  had  been  doing,  he  replied,  ' '  Nothing. ' '  When  I  told  him 
what  he  had  done,  he  denied  it.  When  I  presented  the  written 
suggestions  and  assured  him  positively  that  he  had  carried  out 
every  suggestion  given  in  writing,  and  that  not  a  word  had  been 
spoken  to  indicate  what  we  wanted  him  to  do,  he  laughed  aloud  and 
said  that  we  had  played  a  great  joke  on  him. 

Since  that  one  demonstration  I  have  never  doubted  that  man 
has  a  means  of  conveying  an  idea  or  impression  to  another  indi- 
vidual which  lies  outside  the  domain  of  the  five  special  senses.  It 
is  by  this  that  thought  transference,  or  telepathy,  is  made  possible. 
As  to  whether  the  reader  believes  in  thought  transference,  or 
telepathy,  is  a  matter  for  him  to  decide.  It  is  recognized  as  a 
fact  by  some  of  our  ablest  scientists  and  psychologists  of  the  pres- 
ent day.  It  affords  an  explanation  of  a  great  mass  of  unex- 
plained phenomena  that  have  been  hitherto  relegated  to  the 
realm  of  mysticism.  If  there  be  any  truth  in  it,  it  has  its  prac- 
tical bearing  upon  our  subject  at  hand  in  this  way:  the  more 
faith  one  has  in  his  ability  to  hypnotize  a  subject  or  to  use  sug- 
gestion, both  with  and  without  hypnotism,  the  greater  will  be  his 
success;  the  more  faith  we  have  in  any  therapeutic  measure,  the 
better  will  be  the  results  from  its  administration;  the  more  faith 
we  have  in  that  inherent  quality  of  resistive  power  within  our 
patient,  call  it  by  whatever  name  we  please,  the  better  are  the 
chances  of  our  patient  to  recover. 

The  physicians  who  have  the  most  confidence  in  suggestive 
therapeutics  always  secure  the  best  results  in  its  application.  A 


102  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

doubtful  mental  suggestion  may  outweigh  a  positive  oral  sugges- 
tion, if  it  be  possible  to  give  a  positive  suggestion  orally  when  one 
is  in  doubt,  and  a  physician  may  fail  to  get  results  for  the  lack  of 
confidence  in  the  procedure. 

Furthermore,  we,  as  physicians,  should  cultivate  a  spirit  of 
optimism  and  self-confidence  in  our  demeanor  with  our  patients. 
The  physician  who  goes  into  the  sick-room  with  an  air  of  self- 
sufficiency,  which  is  based  upon  professional  qualifications  and  an 
understanding  of  human  nature,  will  always  inspire  his  patients 
with  confidence  and  secure  that  mental  attitude  on  the  part  of 
the  patient  that  is  desirable.  Such  a  man  usually  possesses  tact 
sufficient,  not  only  to  influence  the  mental  attitude  of  his  patient 
in  regard  to  his  own  condition,  but  to  drop  a  suggestion  here  and 
there  upon  the  minds  of  those  around  him  which  will  secure  the 
proper  psychological  environment  under  which  the  best  results 
may  be  obtained. 

Many  men  succeed  in  the  practice  of  medicine  far  beyond  their 
professional  qualifications  because  they  possess  tact  and  self-con- 
fidence sufficient  to  properly  impress  and  inspire  confidence  in 
those  with  whom  they  associate. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  often  see  a  well-qualified  physician  fail 
to  succeed  on  account  of  his  lack  of  ability  to  carry  that  sug- 
gestive influence  which  is  so  essential  to  the  personality  of  the 
successful  physician.  A  lack  of  faith  in  self,  however  much  one 
may  try  to  conceal  the  fact  from  observation,  repels  that  confidence 
that  others  would  have  in  one. 

I  am  frequently  asked  how  to  acquire  confidence  in  our  ability 
to  succeed  in  accomplishing  what  we  have  undertaken  in  life,  and 
I  usually  answer:  "By  going  the  route — by  making  the  fight,  by 
hard  work,  concentration,  and  study,  and  the  acquirement  of  self- 
confidence,  which  can  come  only  through  knowledge  and  experi- 
ence." That  indefinable  quality  of  personality  called  "personal 
magnetism"  is  comprehended  here.  The  man  who  goes  down  the 
stream  of  life  day  after  day  self-reliant,  optimistic,  and  cheerful, 
with  a  pleasant  greeting  for  his  friends,  glad  that  everything  is 
as  well  with  him  today  as  it  is,  glad  of  the  privilege  to  work,  and 
to  study,  and  to  learn,  and  to  be  of  use  in  the  world,  is  always 


PRACTICAL   THEORETICAL   CONSIDERATIONS.  103 

the  one  that  is  looking  out  for  a  better  tomorrow,  and  uncon- 
sciously attracts  to  him  the  elements  that  go  to  make  up  success 
in  life. 

With  the  physician  this  is  indicated  by  his  library,  his  post- 
graduate diplomas,  his  office  equipment,  and  the  interest  that  he 
takes,  not  only  in  his  profession,  but  in  all  questions  that  con- 
tribute to  the  welfare,  happiness,  and  onward  development  of  the 
human  race.  The  world  has  no  use  for  human  inertness.  We 
must  keep  in  line  with  the  progress  of  our  age,  or  step  aside. 

The  individual  who  is  pessimistic,  despondent,  and  gloomy,  and 
so  morbidly  self-conscious  of  his  own  life's  battles  that  he  has  no 
time  to  speak  to  his  friends,  who  is  continually  speaking  dispara- 
gingly of  life  and  its  opportunities,  brooding  over  his  own  troubles, 
whining  and  complaining,  will  drive  away  those  elements  that  go 
to  make  life  worth  while. 

This  intuitive  faculty  of  the  subconscious  mind  often  forces  itself 
upon  the  recognition  of  the  physician  in  his  routine  work.  You 
have  frequently  been  called  to  see  a  patient  who  was  not  properly 
within  your  clientele.  You  perhaps  wondered  why  you  received 
this  call.  On  returning  the  next  day  to  make  your  second  visit, 
the  minute  you  entered  the  sick-room  you  could  tell  whether  your 
patient  was  better  or  worse,  and  who  among  the  environment  was 
for  you  or  against  you,  and  you  have  at  times  observed  that  the 
patient  would  be  progressing  very  satisfactorily  but  for  the  an- 
tagonistic suggestive  influence  of  some  influential  member  of  the 
family  or  friend  who  favored  the  patronage  of  another  physician. 

To  get  properly  en  rapport  with  all  those  who  collectively  go 
to  make  up  the  environing  influence  brought  to  bear  upon  your 
patient  constitutes  tact,  and  is  one  of  the  greatest  elements  of 
success  in  the  practice  of  medicine. 

The  Subconscious  Mind  is  the  Storehouse  of  Memory.— 
Memory  seems  but  to  be  the  impress  made  by  previous  experiences 
in  life  upon  the  entire  brain  and  nervous  system.  Aside  from  con- 
scious objective  memory,  every  experience  in  your  life  has  left  its 
indelible  impress  upon  your  subconscious  mind.  This  is  what 
gives  rise  to  a  great  many  subjective  impressions  and  sensations 
which  haunt  the  lives  of  neurotic  individuals. 


104  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

All  education  and  instruction,  and  experience  of  any  kind,  are 
retained  by  the  subconscious  mind.  These  ideas  or  impressions 
here  lie  dormant  until  ready  to  be  brought  out  by  the  association 
of  ideas.  You  would  say  that  some  of  your  best  prescriptions 
have  been  extemporaneously  devised  upon  the  spur  of  the  moment ; 
but  the  skilled  surgeon  finds  every  previous  experience  in  the  dis- 
secting and  operating  room  and  pathological  laboratory  instinc- . 
tively  forcing  itself  upon  the  domain  of  consciousness  as  an  im- 
pelling guidance  or  impulse  to  every  step  of  the  procedure. 

By  suggestion,  both  with  and  without  the  aid  of  hypnotism,  we 
can  modify  the  effect  of  old  impressions  and  memories  which  are 
the  result  of  unpleasant  experiences  in  life,  and  plant  new  im- 
pressions and  ideas  that  will  influence  the  future  life  and  conduct 
of  an  individual  both  consciously  and  unconsciously. 

The  physician  who  has  the  happy  faculty  of  getting  the  con- 
fidence of  his  patients  and  keeping  them  feeling  good  is  always 
a  successful  therapist.  At  every  visit  he  lifts  his  patient  out  of- 
a  morbid  self-consciousness  of  despondency  and  gloom,  and,  pre- 
senting a  roseate  hue  of  life,  inspires  him  with  hope  and  confidence. 

That  the  subconscious  mind  is  the  storehouse  of  memory  ex- 
plains why  you  can  give  a  patient  a  suggestion  in  the  hypnotic 
state  at  nine  o'clock  this  morning  that  will  give  him  a  good  night's 
sleep,  beginning  at  a  specified  time,  the  following  evening,  and 
every  night  afterward.  This  is  the  application  of  post-hypnotic 
suggestion.  I  have  frequently  broken  up  nervous,  wakeful  habits 
of  neurotic  individuals  in  a  single  treatment  by  suggestion  in  the 
hypnotic  state,  to  affect  them  post-hypnotically. 

The  nervous  element  of  an  acute  disease  may  be  aggravated, 
or  a  neurasthenic,  psychasthenic,  or  hysterical  condition  main- 
tained, on  account  of  some  morbid  emotional  condition  resulting 
from  an  unpleasant  experience  in  the  previous  life  of  the  indi- 
vidual, rendering  the  patient  nervous,  preventing  sleep,  and  prov- 
ing destructive  to  all  physiological  processes.  Freud's  work  in 
this  field  is  most  instructive. 

By  the  use  of  hypnotic  suggestion  we  can  modify  the  sense  im- 
pressions causing  these  depressing  emotional  disturbances.  Give 
such  people  more  plentiful  and  refreshing  sleep,  and  plant  upon 


PRACTICAL,   THEORETICAL   CONSIDERATIONS.  105 

the  subconscious  mind  such  impressions  as  will  make  them  more 
hopeful,  more  optimistic,  more  cheerful,  and  happier  in  many  ways, 
resulting  in  a  good  appetite,  good  digestion,  improved  nutrition, 
and  a  complete  restoration  to  health.  By  suggestions  properly 
given  in  the  hypnotic  state  we  can  change  the  individual's  point 
of  view  in  regard  to  experiences  which  upset  the  mental  and  nerv- 
ous equilibrium.  I  cite  one  case  for  example : 

I  once  had  a  patient,  a  lady,  who  had  a  son  accidentally  killed. 
She  was  of  an  emotional  nature,  neurasthenic,  and  rather  inclined 
to  be  on  the  hysterical  order.  Three  hours  after  the  accident 
which  caused  her  son's  death  I  was  called.  The  large  bed-room 
was  full  of  friends  who  had  come  to  express  their  sympathy. 
These  people  had  unconsciously  used  suggestion  to  make  her  feel 
worse.  Her  minister  had  been  on  the  scene  to  express  his  sym- 
pathy, and  unconsciously  used  suggestion  to  make  her  more  self- 
conscious  of  her  bereavement. 

As  I  walked  in  the  door  I  began  to  ask  each  of  those  present 
to  leave  me  alone  with  my  patient.  By  the  time  I  had  reached 
the  bed  the  room  was  cleared  of  all  present,  except  her  husband. 
I  attempted  bravely  to  talk  her  into  being  quiet,  but  my  very 
presence  seemed  to  have  been  a  signal  for  an  outburst  of  this 
emotional  condition.  At  every  attempt  to  reason  with  her  or  to 
soothe  and  console  her,  she  would  cry  vehemently  and  answer, 
"Oh,  you  don't  know,  you  don't  know." 

Seeing  that  I  was  making  no  headway,  I  prescribed  chloral- 
hydrate  15  grains  and  potassium  bromide  30  grains  to  each  dose, 
four  doses,  repeated  every  two  hours.  I  directed  that  no  com- 
pany be  allowed  to  come  into  the  room,  and  instructed  her  husband 
to  sit  by  her  bedside  and  place  a  cold  towel  upon  her  forehead, 
changing  it  every  ten  minutes.  This  was  in  August  and  the 
weather  was  extremely  warm. 

After  the  fourth  dose  of  the  prescription  just  mentioned  had 
been  taken  I  prescribed  15  grains  of  trional  to  the  dose,  four  doses, 
to  be  given  every  two  hours.  Three  hours  after  the  last  dose  of 
this  was  taken  I  administered  a  hypodermic  injection  of  morphin 
sulphate  %  grain,  with  hyoscyn  hydrobromid  Moo  grain. 

Three  hours  afterward  she  had  still  been  unable  to  sleep,  was 


106  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

very  nervous,  had  a  terrific  headache,  and  I  felt  that  it  would  be 
unsafe  to  administer  more  medicine.  At  that  juncture  I  hypno- 
tized her.  The  medicine  previously  given  apparently  had  a  cumu- 
lative effect,  as  she  was  very  easily  hypnotized. 

I  then  suggested  that  she  would  sleep  soundly  all  night;  that 
her  sleep  would  be  quiet  and  refreshing;  that  while  she  slept  a 
perfect  spirit  of  resignation  would  come  over  her,  and  she  would 
wake  in  the  morning  feeling  perfectly  resigned  to  the  accident  and 
bereavement;  that  she  would  sleep  soundly  until  eight  o'clock  the 
next  morning,  at  which  time  her  husband  should  awaken  her  by 
placing  his  hand  upon  her  forehead  and  commanding  her  to  wake 
up;  that  she  would  be  feeling  perfectly  resigned  to  the  accident, 
and  would  eat  her  breakfast,  and  give  her  attention  to  her  do- 
mestic relations,  and  feel  proud  that  she  had  ever  been  permitted 
to  be  the  mother  of  so  worthy  a  son. 

On  my  return  the  next  morning  I  found  that  she  had  slept 
soundly  all  night,  and  she  at  once  began  to  tell  me  what  she  had 
decided — giving  me  the  very  ideas  that  I  had  suggested  to  her  the 
night  previous. 

I  feel  quite  sure  that  a  greater  change  in  her  mental  and  nerv- 
ous condition  had  taken  place  during  this  one  night's  sleep,  to- 
gether with  the  influence  of  the  suggestions  given,  than  would 
have  resulted  under  normal  conditions  after  a  period  of  several 
months  had  elapsed. 

My  experience  with  this  patient  fully  corroborates  the  con- 
clusions of  Morton  Prince  when  he  says:  "When  the  hysterical 
manifestations  are  due  to  the  functionating  of  dissociated  sub- 
conscious ideas,  it  is  not  always  necessary,  as  some  writers  insist, 
to  recall  those  ideas  to  the  personal  waking  consciousness.  It 
is  enough  to  break  up  the  subconscious  complex,  or  to  suggest 
antagonistic  ideas,  or  to  resynthesize  the  ideas  into  a  healthy  com- 
plex, which  gives  true  appreciation  of  the  facts  which  they 
represent.  This  can  be  done  in  hypnosis.  After  waking,  though 
amnesia  for  the  previous  subconscious  ideas  may  persist,  the  symp- 
toms disappear,  for  those  harmful  subconscious  ideas  which  caused 
the  trouble  have  ceased  to  exist." 

I  am   furthermore  convinced  that  there  is  much   insanity,   the 


PRACTICAL   THEORETICAL   CONSIDERATIONS.  107 

etiology  of  which  is  obscure,  where,  in  many  cases,  if  the  timely 
administration  of  hypnotic  suggestion  had  been  used  to  give  those 
people  good,  sound  sleep,  to  change  their  mental  attitude  toward 
the  conditions  that  were  worrying  them,  to  make  new  impressions 
upon  their  cerebral  cells,  and  substitute  more  wholesome  mental 
states,  a  large  proportion  of  these  cases  could  have  been  prevented, 
upon  the  principle  that  an  ounce  of  prevention  is  worth  a  pound 
of  cure. 

The  proof  that  all  insanity  is  dependent  upon  diseased  states 
of  the  brain  has  never  yet  been  rendered  in  its  entirety.  Organic 
pathological  changes  are  found  in  paresis,  senile  dementia,  alco- 
holism, and  probably  in  epilepsy,  dementia  praecox,  and  climacteric 
insanity,  and  this  leaves  out  of  consideration  the  condition  of  a 
large  proportion  of  those  adjudged  as  insane.  The  correlation 
between  mental  symptoms  and  pathological  anatomy  is  as  yet 
largely  to  be  determined,  at  least  in  a  considerable  part  of  the 
acknowledged  field  of  insanity. 

Many  people  are  incapable  of  thinking  and  reasoning  for  them- 
selves as  the  result  of  false  training,  education,  and  environment. 
You  can  give  them  advice  and  make  all  the  appeal  to  reason  within 
your  power,  and  yet  they  seem  unable  to  execute  your  ideas.  The 
physician  who  has  that  spirit  of  altruism  sufficient  to  enable  him 
to  appropriate  these  methods  can  here  apply  hypnotic  suggestion 
and  obtain  results  that  can  not  be  obtained  in  any  other  way. 

There  are  others  upon  whom  the  cares  of  life  have  borne  heavily, 
whose  involuntary  nervous  system  has  received  many  a  hard  blow; 
it  has  been  shocked  and  wrought  upon  by  cruel  impressions  or 
experiences  which  take  possession  of  a  patient  and  torment  his 
life.  These  are  found  among  all  classes,  from  the  highest  bred  col- 
lege graduate  to  the  most  ignorant  working  class. 

Many  nervous  and  mental  symptoms  are  what  are  designated 
by  Boris  Sidis  as  recurrent  mental  and  psychomotor  states — that 
is,  according  to  Morton  Prince,  dissociations  of  the  personality 
and  the  reproduction  of  systems  of  ideas  which  were  originally  an 
emotional  mental  accident  that  the  patient  once  upon  a  time  ex- 
perienced. These  experiences  have  been  conserved  as  brain  resi- 


108  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

due,  or  complexes,  which  functionate  again  from  time  to  time  as 
psychoneurotic  symptoms. 

When  they  are  sick,  there  is  no  time  for  re-educating  and  re- 
training them.  Like  miners  buried  in  a  deep,  dark  hole  in  the 
earth,  where  huge  piles  of  shale  and  debris  have  caved  in  upon 
them,  they  need  help.  Like  a  man  in  jail,  they  want  to  get  out. 
They  expect  you  to  do  something  for  them.  To  give  them  nar- 
cotics and  sedatives  but  temporarily  benumbs  their  psychic  activi- 
ties, interferes  with  all  functional  processes,  weakens  their  powers 
of  resistance,  interferes  with  elimination,  and  is  actually  destruc- 
tive and  weakening  to  both  mind  and  body.  The  judicious,  intel- 
ligent application  of  suggestion,  both  with  and  without  hypnotism, 
in  this  class  of  cases  is  a  boon  to  these  unfortunate  sufferers  who 
rely  upon  us  for  help.  A  rearrangement  of  these  conserved  ex- 
periences by  the  neuron  elements  can  be  brought  about,  and  the 
distressing  nervous  and  mental  symptoms  relieved  in  perfect  ac- 
cord with  the  physiological  mechanisms  of  the  nervous  system. 

The  Subconscious  Mind  is  the  Seat  of  the  Emotions. — What- 
ever impulse  dominates  the  individual — whether  fear,  worry, 
anxiety,  envy,  anger,  jealousy,  love,  or  the  purely  animal  passions 
— makes  its  appeal  to  and  impress  on  the  subconscious  mind,,  which 
corresponds  to  the  functions  of  the  involuntary  nervous  system. 

We  all  have  noticed  that  the  functions  of  the  different  organs 
of  the  body  are  greatly  disturbed  through  emotional  influences; 
sorrow  brings  tears  to  .the  eyes ;  prolonged  grief  interferes  with 
the  secretion  of  gastric  juice  by  the  stomach.  Of  all  emotional 
conditions  which  are  most  detrimental,  however,  fear,  which  is  the 
opposite  emotion  to  self-reliance  and  self-confidence,  is  the  worst. 
Fear  is  the  natural  accompaniment  of  weakness,  ignorance,  and 
disease.  Fear  has  a  wonderful  inhibitory  influence  upon  both  the 
motor  and  voluntary,  as  well  as  the  involuntary,  functions  of  the 
body.  Fear  of  sickness,  fear  of  death,  fear  of  failure — fear  of 
anything  of  any  kind,  of  any  nature — is  detrimental  to  aJl  physio- 
logical processes.  We  invite  what  we  fear.  Fear  weakens  our 
resistive  powers  to  disease.  It  is  the  frequent  experience  of  phy- 
sicians to  have  pneumonia  and  enteric  fever  patients  who  die  of 
fear  and  not  on  account  of  the  pathological  condition  existing. 


PRACTICAL   THEORETICAL   CONSIDERATIONS.  109 

At  the  very  onset  of  illness,  quite  frequently,  the  patient  be- 
comes afraid,  gets  nervous,  does  not  sleep,  and  manifests  a  lack 
of  confidence  in  the  ability  of  his  physician  and  doubts  his  own 
ability  to  recover.  He  thus  has  a  psychoneurotic  condition  com- 
plicating his  disease.  His  resistive  powers  are  thus  lessened,  all 
physiological  processes  are  disturbed,  and  death  results  from  fear 
and  not  on  account  of  the  pathological  condition,  which  would  run 
its  course  and  go  on  to  recovery  but  for  the  psychoneurotic  element. 
We  should  distinguish  here  between  conscious  and  subconscious 
fear.  Tuberculous  patients  are  noted  for  their  apparent  optimism, 
hopefulness,  and  cheerfulness,  which  are  frequently  only  on  the 
surface;  yet  as  a  result  of  this  very  optimism,  as  has  been  ob- 
served by  all  physicians,  even  in  the  presence  of  such  a  gross 
pathological  condition,  the  resistive  powers  of  many  tuberculous 
patients  are  augmented  to  an  astonishing  degree.  We  frequently 
see  others,  however,  who  are  so  subconsciously  dominated  by  fear 
that  all  involuntary  nervous  functions  are  disturbed  on  account 
of  impressions  gathered  from  experiences  which  have  come  to  them 
through  their  own  observation  of  the  disastrous  consequences  of 
this  disease.  In  this  class  of  cases  suggestion,  both  with  and  with- 
out hypnotism,  is  particularly  beneficial.  We  quiet  an  irritable, 
involuntary  nervous  system;  we  get  them  to  breathe  deeper;  we 
give  them  suggestions  which  produce  more  plentiful  and  refresh- 
ing sleep,  and  plant  subconscious  impressions,  which  result  in  the 
re-establishment  of  the  normal  functions  of  every  healthy  cell  in 
the  body  as  far  as  this  is  possible.  The  result  is  an  increase  in 
the  patient's  resistive  powers,  a  conservation  of  his  protoplasmic 
energy,  and  he  is  in  condition  to  more  successfully  combat  the 
pathogenic  germs  which  are  making  their  ravages  upon  him.  The 
etiological  factors  of  disease,  whether  due  to  pathogenic  germs  or 
other  causes,  are  powerless  in  the  presence  of  cells  of  an  organism 
with  a  degree  of  resistive  power  sufficient  to  render  them  invul- 
nerable. 

All  that  contributes  to  the  health  of  an  individual  in  the  way 
of  nourishment,  medicine,  climatic  conditions,  exercise,  etc.,  should, 
of  course,  be  appropriated. 

The  etiological  factors  of  disease  are  here,  and  they  are  here  to 


HO  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

stay,  in  spite  of  our  modern  methods  of  disinfection  and  improved 
sanitary  conditions,  which  have  practically  abolished  yellow  fever, 
smallpox,  cholera,  and  other  diseases  regarded  as  inevitable  curses 
of  the  human  race,  and  more  attention  should  be  given  to  increas- 
ing the  resistive  powers  of  the  individual  to  the  ravages  of  patho- 
genic processes. 

We,  as  physicians,  have  studied  the  dead  body  too  much  and  the 
living  organism  not  enough.  We  have  underrated  the  self-healing 
processes  of  nature  and  the  physical  effects  of  psychologic  influ- 
ences. This  has  frequently  given  charlatans,  who  make  use  of 
these  methods  in  disguised  form,  an  opportunity  to  give  us  a  black 
eye.  We  are  now,  however,  giving  more  attention  than  ever  before 
to  social,  and  mental,  and  hygienic  causes  of  health  and  disease, 
and  are  placing  the  practice  of  medicine  upon  a  more  rational 
basis.  We  are  giving  more  attention  to  the  prevention  of  disease 
and  to  methods  of  maintaining  the  health  of  the  individual. 

Suggestion  is  used  both  upon  the  conscious  and  subconscious 
mind,  and  whatever  we  do  in  the  way  of  teaching  our  patients  how 
to  keep  well  by  conforming  to  the  conditions  under  which  health 
can  be  maintained — re-educating  them — comes  within  the  broad 
domain  of  suggestive  therapeutics.  It  is  the  purpose  of  suggestive 
therapeutics  to  help  our  patients  to  help  themselves  by  better  con- 
trol and  by  direction  of  their  conscious  and  subconscious  psychic 
activities. 

It  is  important  to  remember  that  the  subconscious  mind  of  every 
individual  is  amenable  to  the  influence,  control,  or  suggestion  of 
his  own  conscious  mind.  His  own  thoughts,  his  beliefs,  his  pre- 
dominating mental  characteristics,  as  the  result  of  education  and 
environment,  are  the  suggestions  by  which  he  is  continually  in- 
fluencing his  subconscious  mind. 

So  much  so  is  this  true  that  we  judge  character  by  the  expres- 
sion of  the  faces  of  people  that  we  see  every  day.  The  strong  face 
and  the  weak  face,  the  honest  face  and  the  villainous  face,  the 
face  which  indicates  a  high  order  of  individuality  and  self-reliance 
or  a  low  element  of  selfishness  or  servitude,  all  are  in  evidence. 
The  fact  is,  the  body  is  a  perfectly  negative  element,  existing  ac- 
cording to  the  laws  of  heredity,  environment,  and  education. 


PRACTICAL   THEORETICAL   CONSIDERATIONS.  Ill 

Thought  is  a  great  factor  of  change  and  growth,  and  thought 
means  that  brain  cells  are  functionating  in  response  to  internal  and 
external  stimuli.  The  will  power  is  a  positive  part  which  can  guide 
and  regulate  our  thinking,  provided  it  has  once  been  evolved  suf- 
ficiently to  set  up  a  new  line  of  mental  reaction,  through  memory 
and  experience.  We  are  all,  then,  using  our  thought  forces  or  self- 
suggestions  as  either  creative  or  destructive  agencies,  in  accordance 
with  this  natural  psychophysiological  law. 

In  order  to  think  for  one's  self,  however,  the  individual  must  be 
equipped.  He  must  have  a  well-trained  and  well-developed  mind 
and  nervous  system,  which  can  come  only  by  conforming  to  the 
laws  of  health  and  by  familiarity  with  the  facts  that  are  demon- 
strated by  science,  and  not  through  the  influence  of  the  modern 
metaphysical  theories  of  the  present  time,  which  act  as  temporary 
narcotics,  lulling  the  intellectual  faculties  into  passivity.  Yet,  to 
cultivate  habits  of  cheerfulness,  optimism,  and  self-reliance  con- 
duces to  health  and  strength  of  the  physical  organism  on  account 
of  the  influences  of  such  mental  states  upon  the  involuntary  physio- 
logical processes.  Such  states  of  consciousness  as  give  rise  to 
pessimism,  despondency,  jealousy,  anger,  worry,  envy,  and  dis- 
content exert  a  wrecking,  weakening,  ruinous  effect  upon  all  the 
involuntary  functions.  The  system  becomes  loaded  with  metabolic 
toxins,  which  in  turn  render  the  individual  more  miserable  and 
morbidly  self-conscious. 

People  frequently  say  they  are  miserable  on  account  of  their 
physical  condition,  and  they  are,  but  they  are  often  reaping  in 
full  measure  the  conclusion  of  their  own  mental  action.  The  con- 
dition of  the  body  is  largely  the  result  of  what  an  individual  has 
thought  and  believed,  and  thought  and  belief  are  determined  by 
his  education  and  other  experiences  in  life,  which  have  left  their 
impress  upon  the  neuron  elements.  The  influence  of  education 
upon  the  expression  of  the  face  and  physique  has  been  observed 
by  us  all,  and  furnishes  a  fitting  illustration  of  the  influence  of  the 
mind  over  the  body. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

FURTHER  CONSIDERATION  OF   THE  PRINCIPLES, 
PROBLEMS,  AND  FIELD  OF  PSYCHOTHERAPY. 

The  tendency  of  the  logical  mind  of  today  is  toward  the  ac- 
ceptance of  a  philosophy  that  seeks  for  unity  of  body,  mind,  and 
spirit.  These  are  qualities  of  the  individual,  but,  scientifically 
speaking,  they  are  one  and  the  same  thing.  Thus,  monistic  phi- 
losophy, or  monism,  recognizes  that  mind,  spirit,  and  matter,  soul 
and  body,  God  and  the  world,  are  abstractions  and  not  things  in 
themselves,  but  are  incomprehensibly  bound  together  in  their  in- 
separable oneness.  Call  this  philosophy  " monism"  or  "monothe- 
ism," to  suit  yourself,  but  you  can  not  get  away  from  the 
stupendous  fact,  even  though  our  half-trained  understandings  and 
narrow  experiences  are  unprepared  to  comprehend  it,  that  the 
whole  universe  is  animated  by  a  single  principle  of  life  and  mode 
of  energy,  and  that  such  expressions  as  body,  mind,  and  spirit  are 
qualities  of  this  one  principle,  thing,  or  substance.  But  since  it 
is  impossible  to  think  of  any  quality  or  thing  except  by  comparison 
with  something  else,  each  one  of  these  qualities  should  be  held  in 
equal  appreciation. 

Knowledge  is  but  an  apprehension  of  facts  based  on  a  represen- 
tation or  description  of  those  facts  in  terms  that  can  be  compre- 
hended by  human  intelligence. 

So,  then,  in  our  analysis  of  the  qualities  of  personality  we  can 
with  consistency,  in  the  light  of  these  premises,  say  that  each 
individual  becomes  self-conscious  of  his  existence  upon  one  of  three 
planes  respectively — physical,  mental  or  intellectual,  and  moral  or 
spiritual,  all  qualities  of  the  same  individual. 

For  instance,  the  atom  of  hydrogen  gas,  considered  for  so  long 
a  time  to  be  the  smallest  subdivision  of  material  substance,  is  now 
known  to  be  itself  composed  of  from  twelve  hundred  to  three 
thousand  "ions,"  or  charges  of  electricity,  or  elemental  units  of 

112 


FURTHER   CONSIDERATION   OP    PSYCHOTHERAPY.  113 

force;  and  it  is  now  recognized  that  there  is  in  the  universe  but 
this  one  element.  Every  other  element  or  combination  of  elements 
is  composed  of  this  one  elementary  substance  coming  together  in 
different  degrees  of  density,  so  that  the  space  a  thousand  feet 
above  our  heads  is  composed  of  precisely  the  same  elementary  sub- 
stance as  is  the  earth  beneath  our  feet. 

Furthermore,  the  cosmos,  with  its  countless  planetary  systems 
and  planets,  some  of  which  are  millions  of  times  larger  than  this 
little  earth  upon  which  we  live,  together  with  the  spaces  between 
them,  is  all  composed  of  this  one  elementary  substance — call  it 
physical,  mental,  or  spiritual,  as  you  please. 

The  only  logical  conclusion,  then,  is*  that  the  entire  cosmos  is 
an  organism — pulsating,  throbbing,  vibrating,  living — in  which  we 
live,  and  move,  and  have  our  existence. 

And  as  is  the  cosmos,  so  is  man.  He  is  an  organism — pulsating, 
vibrating,  living.  And  as  is  man,  so  is  each  individual  cell  in  his 
body,  with  inherent  potentialities  and  powers  that  are  constantly 
being  manifested,  functionating  in  its  own  way,  as  it  plays  its 
part  in  the  game  of  life  according  to  heredity  and  environment. 

Yet  life  is  a  fact,  and  all  forms  of  life,  from  the  first  unicel- 
lular moneron  down  through  the  millions  and  millions  of  years 
in  which  the  evolutionary  development  of  man  has  passed,  are  all 
sharers  of  that  one  ever-present  life,  with  numberless  varieties  of 
expression,  infinite  and  limitless. 

In  the  evolutionary  development  of  the  human  race  and  of  the 
human  intellect  and  character,  each  individual  seems  to  become 
self-conscious  of  life  upon  one  or  the  other  of  these  three  re- 
spective planes  before  mentioned — physical,  intellectual,  and  moral 
or  spiritual — each  of  which  is  the  result  of  training,  education,  and 
environment,  so  far  as  their  manifestations  in  his  life  are  concerned. 

A  great  many  people  are  conscious  of  life  only  upon  the  phys- 
ical plane.  They  have  scarcely  any  higher  conception  of  ex- 
istence and  its  meaning  than  what  appeals  to  the  appetites — eating, 
drinking,  and  sensual  indulgences.  Like  two-legged  animals,  they 
live,  in  many  instances,  upon  a  plane  even  lower  than  the  brute, 
as  is  indicated  by  expression  of  face,  physique,  character  of  speech, 
habits,  and  conduct. 


114  SUGGESTIVE  THERAPEUTICS. 

Others  there  are  who  in  self-consciousness  reach  the  next  higher 
plane  and  seem  to  go  no  farther.  There  are  people  that  we  all 
know,  concerning  whom,  though  they  may  have  an  intellectuality 
so  cold  and  pulseless  that  it  glitters  as  the  stars,  and  be  strong 
enough  mentally  to  make  wonderful  achievements  in  the  fields  of 
politics  and  commerce,  it  is  nevertheless  easy  to  discover  that  there 
is  an  element  lacking  in  their  personality.  It  is  lacking  in  expres- 
sion of  face,  in  hand  shake,  in  tone  and  quality  of  voice  and  speech, 
and  especially  in  their  conduct  and  demeanor  with  their  fellow- 
man.  In  the  presence  of  such  an  individual  one  feels  more  as 
if  one  were  face  to  face  with  a  stone  or  an  iceberg,  rather  than  in 
the  presence  of  a  human  being. 

As  to  what  conscious  existence  upon  the  higher  plane  of  self- 
hood indicated  implies,  it  is  hard  to  define,  yet  it  consists  in  the 
evolving  and  developing  of  those  higher  elements  of  human  char- 
acter regarded  as  the  ethical,  and  esthetic,  and  moral  sense.  We 
see  it  manifested  in  its  influence  upon  human  life  in  magnanimity, 
generosity,  altruism,  kindness,  bravery,  and  all  other  distinctly 
human  faculties.  It  is  the  higher  functionating  of  the  true  ego ;  the 
real  man — call  it  body,  mind,  spirit,  life,  or  soul.  It  is  manifested 
in  man  or  woman  by  the  exhibition  of  those  inner  qualities  of 
moral  and  spiritual  dignity,  in  the  determination  to  do  only  that 
which  is  conceived  to  be  good  and  right;  not  in  the  outer  esteem 
of  their  fellows  or  in  the  worthless  praise  of.  a  conventional  society, 
but  in  their  own  inner  consciousness.  "Unfortunately,"  says 
Ernst  Hackel,  "we  have  to  admit  that  in  this  respect  we  are  still 
largely  ruled  by  the  foolish  views  of  a  lower  civilization,  if  not  of 
crude  barbarians." 

This  animating  life  principle  that  functionates  in  human  beings 
defies  analysis,  evades  our  comprehension,  and  transports  our 
thoughts  beyond  what  is  finite  and  terrestrial.  But  it  is  in  man 
because  man  is,  and,  if  it  were  not,  he  would  not  be.  Hackel  says, 
"Why  trouble  about  this  enigmatical  'thing  in  itself  when  we 
have  no  means  of  investigating  it  ? " 

This  unexplained,  undefined,  and  incomprehensible  element  in 
man,  which  is  the  sum  total  of  all  of  man's  psychophysical  po- 
tentialities, is  the  real  ego.  It  is  the  power  that  manifests  itself 


FURTHER   CONSIDERATION   OP    PSYCHOTHERAPY.  115 

on  the  physical,  mental,  or  spiritual  plane — in  its  voluntary  human 
expression  according  to  knowledge,  education,  and  environment. 
It  is  the  intelligent  life  entity  which,  when  fully  awakened  and 
evolved  in  the  consciousness  of  the  individual,  makes  him  strong, 
independent,  capable,  and  free. 

It  is  the  privilege  and  duty  of  every  individual  to  manifest  the 
highest  expression  and  meaning  of  life  upon  each  of  these  planes — 
physical,  mental,  and  moral ;  to  develop  harmoniously  as  an  athlete 
in  body,  mind,  and  character. 

When  this  highest  element  of  selfhood  is  evolved,  then  do  mind 
and  body  become  man's  obedient  servants — then  do  we  discover 
the  meaning  of  Emerson's  expression  that  "every  man  is  a  divinity 
in  disguise,  a  God  acting  a  fool." 

Strange  talk,  this  may  appear,  to  be  giving  to  medical  men,  but 
it  is  the  most  essential  truth  in  connection  with  our  subject. 

In  the  application  of  suggestive  therapeutics  we  must  regard 
man  as  a  thing  of  life,  of  force,  of  intelligence,  of  will,  and  of 
reason,  that  emanates  from  and  is  a  part  of  the  central  source 
of  all  life,  with  millions  and  millions  of  cells  in  his  organism  that 
are  ready  to  respond  to  stimuli  in  the  form  of  human  personality, 
therapeutically  the  personality  of  the  physician. 

In  all  events,  in  the  light  of  this  monistic  philosophy  that  is 
accepted  by  every  prominent  man  of  science  at  the  present  time, 
let  us  as  physicians  recognize  that  this  inherent  potentiality,  or 
quality,  or  element  is  latent  in  every  human  being,  whether  recog- 
nized by  him  or  not,  and  let  us  make  use  of  this  animating  life 
principle  in  therapeutics,  using  it  as  one  of  nature's  forces  by 
conforming  to  the  law  that  governs  it. 

The  intimate  relation  between  neuron  structure  and  mental  ac- 
tivity is  now  fully  appreciated  by  both  physiologists  and  psycholo- 
gists. We  are  taught  that  the  morphological  structure  of  nerve 
elements  bears  a  most  important  and  intimate  relation  to  mental 
activity — that  the  mode  of  neuron  structure  is  regarded  as  mirror- 
ing the  mode  of  organization  of  the  psychic  life. 

But  it  must  also  be  remembered  that  every  psychical  phenome- 
non has  its  physical  concomitant,  which  is  but  to  say  that  every 
mental  state  has  its  influence  upon  the  body.  The  changes  which 


116  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

appear  in  neuron  structure  are,  then,  the  result  of  education  and 
experience,  which  promote  its  growth  and  development.  Faculty 
precedes  function.  Inherent  in  every  human  organism  are  latent 
faculties  or  potentialities  which  can  be  developed  through  the  in- 
fluence of  environment  and  education — other  names  for  suggestion. 

Step  by  step  it  is  dawning  upon  us  that  humanity  is  an  organ- 
ism, and  that  "the  satisfaction,  requirement,  and  functionating 
life  activity  are  impossible  without  social  co-operation,  and  it  is 
only  then  that  the  individual  becomes  freed  from  the  bonds  of 
blood  relationship."  "In  other  words,"  say  Sidis  and  Goodhart, 
"with  the  growth  and  development  of  social  organization,  organic 
bondage  is  replaced  by  functional  relationship. ' ' 

The  lives  of  human  beings  are  thus  so  interrelated  that  per- 
sonality is  but  the  outgrowth  of  experience.  The  life  of  each  in- 
dividual is  constantly  influencing  the  growth  and  development  of 
the  brain,  and  mind,  and  character  of  other  individuals,  by  whom 
he  is  also  influenced. 

Morality,  the  functionating  of  the  highest  element  or  quality  of 
selfhood,  conforms  to  the  law  of  evolution,  and,  like  organic  evo- 
lution, this  psychic  evolution  is  but  the  adaptation  of  individuals 
to  conditions  of  existence.  The  law  of  psychic  evolution,  as  of 
evolution  in  general,  is  from  structure  to  function,  from  bondage 
to  freedom  of  the  individual  elements. 

In  the  light  of  the  foregoing  pages,  then,  you  are  a  being — body, 
mind,  or  spirit — animated  by  the  one  principle  of  life  from  which 
you  come,  in  common  with  all  human  beings  and  all  forms  of  life. 
You  have  a  mind  and  a  body  such  as  you  have  made  it  for  your- 
self, modified,  of  course,  by  the  laws  of  heredity  and  environment. 
You  physically  are  the  obedient  servant,  or  should  be,  to  the 
controlling  force  or  life  entity  within.  Your  face  and  physique 
have  been  formed,  shaped,  and  molded  by  your  use  or  abuse  of 
this  inherent  life  force  within  you. 

This  inherent  life  force,  question  of  all  questions,  what  is  that? 
Who  are  you?  In  the  light  of  modern  knowledge  of  the  cosmic 
process  of  evolution,  we  are  constrained  to  answer  that  you  are 
a  part  of  the  universal  source  of  all  life,  which  you  see  manifested 
wherever  you  see  anything,  from  the  dead  earth  upon  which  you 


FURTHER    CONSIDERATION   OP   PSYCHOTHERAPY.  117 

walk  to  the  eyes  of  those  whom  you  love,  to  flowers,  trees,  clouds, 
moon,  sun,  and  stars,  even  the  stars  so  far  away  that  a  ray  of  light, 
going  at  the  rate  of  one  hundred  and  ninety-five  thousand  miles 
per  second,  beginning  at  the  time  when,  it  was  formerly  believed, 
the  world  was  thrown  out  into  space  by  special  creation,  could  not 
have  yet  reached  this  planet — infinite  and  limitless.  It  is  re- 
ferred to  by  scientists  as  "force;"  Herbert  Spencer  says,  "the 
eternal  energy  behind  and  within  all  things;"  the  idealists  or 
religionists  say,  "the  God  in  whom  we  live,  move,  and  have  our 
being. ' ' 

Think  of  this  power  of  which  you  are  a  part;  how  it  converts 
bread  and  meat,  fruit  and  vegetables  into  bone  and  muscle,  brain 
and  blood,  and  how  you  are  endowed  with,  or  have  evolved,  will 
and  reason,  and  other  faculties  of  mind  and  character,  and  then 
dare  to  exercise  these  inherent  potentialities  as  a  co worker  with 
infinity.  Divine  molecules  are  we,  with  the  privilege  to  think, 
reason,  will,  and  do  for  ourselves. 

It  is  utterly  impossible  to  hypnotize  any  one  without  getting 
the  consent  and  co-operation  of  the  self-conscious  ego — unless  it 
be  accomplished  by  playing  upon  his  ignorant  credulity,  which  is 
never  justifiable.  See  how  we  get  the  consent  and  co-operation  of 
this,  the  real  man,  when  an  individual  consents  to  relax,  close  his 
eyes,  with  lips  slightly  apart,  to  secure  thorough  relaxation,  as  if 
to  say,  "All  right,  Doctor,  mind  and  body  submit  I  unto  you;  I 
step  aside,  the  door  is  open." 

At  this  juncture  and  while  your  patient  is  in  this  condition,  by 
your  better  educated  and  better  equipped  personality,  jou  pour 
some  of  your  own  psychic  life  in  the  form  of  suggestion  into  his. 
This  statement,  in  the  light  of  the  modern  teaching  of  physio- 
logical psychologists,  is  scientifically  accurate.  According  to 
Prince,  you  substitute  healthy  complexes  for  those  organized  sys- 
tems of  associated  ideas  which  have  become  conserved  as  residue 
in  the  unconscious  and  which  reproduce  themselves  as  automatisms 
over  and  over  again ;  for,  when  once  organized,  they  are  conserved 
and  become  a  part  of  our  personality.  The  nervous  system  faith- 
fully conserves  and  reproduces  its  experiences.  The  procedure, 
whether  suggestion  is  employed  with  or  without  hypnotism,  means 


118  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

education,  or,  if  you  please,  re-education.  Even  where  hypnotism 
is  employed,  the  consciousness  induced  remains  a  part  of  one's  self 
as  a  psychophysiological  complex,  however  absolutely  the  patient 
may  have  lost  realization  of  the  suggestions  given  in  the  sub- 
conscious state.  The  aim  of  psychotherapeutic  treatment  is  the 
formation  of  healthy  complexes  of  ideas  which  will  not  stimulate 
the  undesired  complexes,  but  by  their  automatic  activity  will  con- 
tribute to  the  well-being  of  the  individual  and  adapt  him  to  his 
environment. 

It  is  estimated  that  the  normal  individual  has  from  eight  hun- 
dred million  to  thirteen  hundred  million  cells  of  gray  matter  in 
his  brain,  and  that  the  average  individual  uses  but  about  one-tenth 
of  this  entire  number.  By  the  influence  of  personality  upon  per- 
sonality, then,  we  convert  latent  energy  into  moving  energy,  po- 
tential energy  into  dynamic  energy,  and  thus  stimulate  and 
encourage  the  functions  of  every  cell  in  the  human  body. 

Every  time  you  come  into  the  presence  of  a  patient  it  is  your 
privilege  and  duty  to  get  the  consent  and  co-operation  of  the  ego, 
that  highest  element  of  the  self-conscious  individual,  and  appeal 
to  this  higher  psychic  quality — the  man  himself — the  organized, 
intelligent  life  entity,  that  has  simply  thrown  this  physical  cloak 
around  him,  and  encourage  it  to  vitalize  and  energize  all  life  proc- 
esses upon  the  physical  plane.  We  thus  assist  the  patient  in  mak- 
ing use  of  the  normal  mechanism  of  mind  and  body,  of  the  physio- 
logical machinery  already  provided,  to  bring  about  restitution  of 
the  diseased  organism  and  restore  the  individual  to  health. 

We,  as  physicians,  have  studied  dead  eyes  that  do  not  see,  dead 
tongues  that  do  not  talk,  dead  ears  that  do  not  hear.  We  all 
know  that  the  mind,  soul,  spirit,  or  intellect,  name  it  as  you  choose, 
is  the  real  man,  which  functionates  in  correlation  with  the  neuron 
elements,  and  yet  this  ever-present  entity  has  been  an  unconsid- 
ered  element  in  our  consideration  of  human  beings. 

Most  sick  people  need  education,  knowledge,  and  guidance  to 
enable  them  to  make  use  of  the  physiological  machinery  provided 
by  nature  for  the  purpose  of  acquiring  and  maintaining  health, 
happiness,  and  success  in  life. 

The  great  majority  of  mankind  is  practically  untouched  by  the 


FURTHER    CONSIDERATION    OP   PSYCHOTHERAPY.  119 

progress  of  present-day  knowledge.  The  tremendous  task  of  teach- 
ing men  and  women  to  think  for  themselves  and  learn  the  great 
lesson  of  self-reliance  has  scarcely  begun.  All  but  our  most  in- 
telligent people  are  creatures  of  a  school  of  thought,  or  belong 
to  some  intellectual  herd.  Never  was  there  a  time  that  so  de- 
manded fearless,  independent,  tolerant,  logical  thinking. 

Reason  is  mankind's  greatest,  highest,  and  noblest  faculty,  and 
as  such  should  be  the  supreme  court  of  the  mind;  all  other  im- 
pulses that  flitter,  and  dance,  and  play  in  the  stream  of  human 
consciousness,  either  intellectual  or  emotional  in  character,  should 
be  subject  to  its  rulings. 

Will,  the  executor  of  reason  and  judgment,  should  be  loyal 
enough  to  follow  their  dictates.  It  is  upon  this  condition  only 
that  sanity  is  maintained.  Will  and  reason,  however,  are,  in 
keeping  with  the  law  of  evolution,  psychic  qualities  that  are  de- 
veloped by  education,  knowledge,  and  experience. 

Consciousness,  the  most  fundamental  faculty  of  the  human  soul, 
is  a  stream  of  endless  psychic  states,  resulting  from  previous  ex- 
periences, incessantly  changing  as  the  restless,  whitecapped  tides 
of  ocean,  that  can  exist  only  by  virtue  of  its  endless,  unceasing 
motion ;  and  this  continuous  change  is  what  makes  conscious  life. 

Conscious  life  itself,  then,  is  a  stream  of  varying  psychical  states, 
which  quickly  follow  one  another  in  perpetual  motion,  rolling,  ris- 
ing and  sinking,  ebbing  and  flowing,  with  never  an  instant  of  rest. 
The  elementary  psychic  states  which  lie  below  consciousness  con- 
stitute the  subconscious  realm.  Here  is  a  great  ocean  of  mem- 
ories, sensations,  imaginations,  emotions  and  impulses,  desires  and 
aspirations,  hopes  and  ambitions,  fears  and  disappointments,  suc- 
cesses and  failures,  which  are  past  impressions  or  memory  pictures 
that  linger  in  the  human  brain.  These  rise  to  the  realm  of  con- 
sciousness, and  are  interpreted  in  thoughts  and  feelings  from  which 
there  is  no  escaping,  and  these  thoughts  or  feelings  in  turn  con- 
stitute mental  states  which  exert  an  influence  upon  all  involuntary 
physiological  processes. 

The  power  of  attention  fixes  the  mind  on  such  ideas  and  sen- 
sations or  memory  pictures  as  are  most  worth  while  to  the  indi- 
vidual, and  by  constant  assertion  and  iteration,  reasoning  and 


120  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

persuasion,  suggesting  and  impressing,  we  substitute  such  impres- 
sions as  will  bring  the  individual  under  their  influence,  both  con- 
sciously and  subconsciously. 

By  suggestion  we  can  drive  back  these  subconscious  impressions 
or  memory  pictures,  and,  if  we  but  have  personality  and  selfhood 
to  dare  to  make  an  appeal  to  the  highest  element  of  character 
within  those  of  our  patients  who  need  thus  arousing,  we  have 
rendered  the  greatest  service  that  one  human  being  can  possibly 
render  a  fellowman.  Arouse  the  higher  intellectual  faculties, 
the  higher  brain  centers,  and  the  highest  moral  ideal  into  action, 
and  you  truly  put  life  into  your  patient. 

In  every  great  battle  that  has  been  fought  in  both  ancient  and 
modern  times,  brave  leadership  by  a  strong  appeal  made  through 
patriotism  and  pride  has  so  aroused  the  psychic  element  in  soldiers 
in  battle  that  men  have  been  frequently  known  to  stand  and  fight 
through  heat  and  cold,  day  and  night,  with  hunger  and  thirst, 
for  days  and  days  at  a  time,  and  conquer  by  unwavering  will  and 
determination.  They  have  thus  exhibited  a  degree  of  resistive 
power  in  many  notable  instances  that  has  been  beyond  human 
conception.  In  all  instances  in  battle  the  soldiers  on  the  vic- 
torious side  easily  recover  from  serious  wounds  and  mutilations, 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  those  upon  the  side  that  is  defeated 
die  of  mere  trivial  inflictions. 

In  all  heroic  achievements  of  men,  reserve,  subconscious  power 
has  been  brought  into  action,  stimulated  or  evoked  by  the  con- 
ditions of  the  moment,  that  enables  individuals  to  accomplish  that 
which  seemed  absolutely  impossible  in  proportion  to  their  recog- 
nized capacity. 

These  are  facts  that  every  observing  individual  has  frequently 
recognized  and  that  are  acknowledged  by  us  all.  If  human  beings 
have  within  them  that  psychic  element  which  can  be  evoked  under 
extraordinary  conditions  to  so  increase  the  normal  resistive  powers 
and  capabilities  of  both  mind  and  body,  why  should  we  as  phy- 
sicians not,  in  a  sense,  be  generals  or  leaders  in  our  association 
with  our  patients,  and  in  our  daily  relations  with  them  evoke 
latent  energy  and  heighten  their  normal  resistive  powers  to  the 
ravages  of  any  disease,  acute  or  chronic,  organic  or  psychoneurotic  ? 


FURTHER    CONSIDERATION    OF    PSYCHOTHERAPY.  121 

What  are  we,  as  the  medical  profession,  doing  as  leaders  for 
the  people?  As  guardians  of  the  public  health,  are  we  doing  all 
within  our  power  in  the  way  of  teaching  people  how  to  keep  well, 
and  healthy,  and  strong,  without  relying  upon  us  to  administer 
to  their  physical  necessities,  or  upon  priest  or  clergy  to  control 
their  psychic  activities  ? 

In  directing  an  individual  how  to  control  his  or  her  psychic 
activities  and  steer  them  into  channels  of  useful  thought  and  con- 
duct, the  entire  man,  physical  and  psychical,  body  and  mind — 
or  soul  and  spirit,  if  you  choose — must  be  taken  into  consideration. 
Body,  mind,  and  spirit  must  be  considered  as  qualities  of  the 
individual,  one  and  inseparable ;  their  interdependence  must  be 
recognized. 

At  this  time,  when  those  possessing  abnormal  powers  of  imag- 
ination, with  unlimited  emotion  and  little  reasoning,  are  being 
led  by  every  absurd  theory  and  metaphysical  dogma  that  is  pre- 
sented under  the  pretense  of  an  especially  commissioned  divine 
guidance,  we  should  be  prepared  to  rise  to  the  occasion  and  acquit 
ourselves  as  men  in  the  highest  sense.  The  great  need  of  the  world 
today  is  education,  knowledge,  and  guidance — other  names  for  hon- 
est, conscientious,  truthful  suggestion. 

The  problems  of  health  are  the  problems  of  life,  problems  of 
education  and  economic  considerations,  which  involve  the  questions 
of  work,  food,  clothing,  homes,  and  all  other  essentials  that  make 
for  human  happiness.  Manhood  is  only  in  the  making.  We  are 
yet  evolving,  growing,  and  developing.  The  process  of  evolution 
is  as  active  today  as  it  was  a  million  years  ago,  and  it  points  to 
the  evolution  of  the  mind  as  well  as  the  body,  of  the  God  in  man, 
and  not  the  triumphant  brute.  All  those  who  in  any  way  by  ideas, 
provision  of  means,  or  achievement  contribute  to  the  evolution  of 
the  human  race  are  the  world's  true  benefactors. 

The  self-conscious  ego  can  and  does  functionate  on  the  physical 
plane,  making  a  tyrant  or  a  beast  of  man;  or  on  the  mental  or 
intellectual  plane,  making  him  capable  of  reasoning  and  thinking 
for  himself ;  or  on  the  ethical  or  moral  plane,  making  him  a  reason- 
able, useful  human  being,  dependent  on  education  and  environ- 
ment. The  optimism  of  scientific  minds  consists  in  the  belief  that 


122  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

upon  these  three  planes  of  life  mankind  must  be  strong,  capable, 
and  free,  and  that  we  shall  not  dwindle  into  physical  weaklings, 
intellectual  nonentities,  or  spiritual  slaves  or  fanatics. 

The  fight  made  by  the  medical  profession  against  parasitic  germs 
in  the  fields  of  pathology,  surgery,  medicine,  and  hygiene  has  been 
crowded  with  glorious  achievement,  but  a  greater  work  is  still 
before  us.  Our  battle  is  only  half  begun. 

Since  the  days  of  Vesalius,  Harvey,  and  Jenner,  down  to  the 
present  time,  every  step  of  advance  made  by  medical  science  has 
been  boldly  contested  and  fought  by  ignorance,  fanaticism,  and 
misdirected  zeal.  The  warfare  of  science  must  go  on  forever. 
Nature  has  surrendered  to  science  her  most  valued  treasures.  We 
have  subdued  steam  and  electricity,  harnessed  the  waterfalls,  tun- 
neled the  mountains,  rendered  the  bosom  of  the  ocean  amenable 
to  the  great  service  of  mankind,  and  demanded  from  the  bowels 
of  the  earth  her  most  sacred  treasures. 

Those  who  regard  humanity  as  a  finished  product,  now  standing 
at  the  mercy  of  an  anthropomorphic  deity,  are  in  the  truest  sense 
retarding  the  evolution,  growth,  and  development  of  the  highest 
psychic  qualities  of  manhood  and  womanhood. 

Science  has  no  fight  to  make  against  true  religion;  its  struggle 
is  with  ignorance  and  intolerant  dogmatism.  She  demands  a  re- 
ligion that  appeals  to  the  intellect  as  well  as  to  the  emotions,  to 
reason  and  not  to  ignorance — one  that  will  develop  the  entire 
individual  to  the  fullness  of  perfect  manhood  and  womanhood. 
Life  is  a  struggle.  Every  idea  that  seeks  to  be  embodied  demands 
a  conflict.  In  order  to  live,  we  must  dare  to  be — to  declare  our 
own  individuality. 

Physicians  have  done  much  for  the  protection  of  the  human 
body,  but  what  are  they  doing  to  prevent  the  parasitic  infection 
of  absurd  beliefs,  and  dogmas,  and  theories  that  at  the  present 
time  infect  the  human  mind  with  their  blighting,  weakening  in- 
fluence upon  the  development  of  body,  mind,  and  character? 

Science  and  every-day  experience  agree  that  nature  cares  noth- 
ing for  individuals.  What  the  people  of  our  time  need  is  plain 
living,  clear  thinking,  and  right  action  to  develop  potentialities  of 
both  mind  and  body. 


FURTHER   CONSIDERATION    OF   PSYCHOTHERAPY.  123 

The  psychical  'correlation  of  religious  emotion  and  the  sexual 
instincts  is  such  that  any  sect  that  starts  with  extravagant  senti- 
ments of  love  to  all  men  will  fascinate  and  take  hold  of  an  easily 
impressible  type  of  unscientific  and  unthinking  people.  Yet  minds 
that  have  been  stored  with  nothing  more  substantial  than  historical 
fiction,  and  agitated  so  long  by  unreasonable  dogmas  of  a  capricious 
deity  from  which  they  naturally  shrink,  are  easily  captured  and 
held  in  subjection  by  any  mind-soothing  theory  under  the  guise  of 
religion  that  has  a  romantic  or  mystical  flavor.  A  lack  of  contact 
with  the  world  and  an  unfamiliarity  with  the  facts  of  science  have 
left  these  credulous  people  with  no  more  powers  of  reflection  than 
a  child,  and  they  naturally  have,  in  consequence,  abnormally  de- 
veloped imaginations  and  emotions,  and  are  easily  captured  by 
absurd  and  illogical  metaphysical  vagaries. 

I  have  talked  with  many  men  of  scientific  attainments,  and  in 
the  ranks  of  both  the  clergy  and  the  medical  profession  they  de- 
plore the  fact  that  theologians  of  the  present  day  have  been  so 
slow  to  accept  and  utilize  the  message  of  science,  and  that  so  many 
have  lacked  the  moral  stamina  to  shake  off  the  worn-out  and  use- 
less doctrines  of  an  ignorant  and  superstitious  age;  yet  among  the 
clergy  are  many  who  teach  and  preach  better  than  their  creed. 
They  have  no  fight  to  make  against  science,  but  look  upon  science 
as  the  handmaiden  of  true  religion.  The  majority,  however,  has 
been  held  in  the  coils  of  creed  and  fettered  by  dogma,  and  thus 
coerced  into  a  beaten  path  at  the  sacrifice  of  reason  and  judgment. 
The  more  enlightened  clergymen  realize  this,  and  just  in  propor- 
tion as  they  are  educated  and  scientific  men  are  they  boldly  get- 
ting away  from  the  absurd  dogmas,  and  shaking  off  useless  external 
formalities  that  have  fettered  the  aspiring  spirit,  progress,  and 
growth  of  humanity  so  long. 

In  their  slowness  to  interpret  life  and  its  meaning  in  the  light 
of  present-day  knowledge,  no  wonder  that  we  see  an  article  in 
one  of  our  leading  periodicals  headed,  "Is  the  Pulpit  a  Coward's 
Castle ? ' '  And  yet  there  was  never  in  the  world's  history  a  greater 
need  for  strong,  fearless,  unblemished,  and  unfettered  men  willing 
to  devote  their  lives  to  the  help  of  their  fellowmen. 

Do  von  ask  what  this  discussion  has  to  do  with  suggestive  thera- 


124  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

peutics?  It  has  at  the  present  day  a  most  important  bearing. 
The  present  status  of  this  subject  is  so  related  to  those  influences 
of  an  educational  nature  that  furnish  food  stuffs  to  the  minds  of 
the  people,  that  I  should  feel  that  I  had  dodged  the  issue,  the  most 
important  issue,  did  I  not  boldly  face  these  problems,  which  I 
know  are  agitating  the  minds  of  scientific  medical  men  everywhere, 
and  give  them  the  consideration  that  they  so  pre-eminently  deserve. 

Religious  beliefs,  and  health,  and  disease  stand  in  precisely  the 
same  relation  as  do  mind  and  body.  It  is  simply  a  question  of 
those  influences  that  dominate  and  control  an  individual's  psychic 
life.  It  is  a  question  of  the  factors  that  are  obscuring  and  ob- 
structing the  path  of  social  and  intellectual  progress  in  opposition 
to  those  influences  that  elevate  thought  and  action  among  living 
men  and  women. 

No  intelligent  physician  would  think  of  overlooking  the  ques- 
tion of  dietetics  in  the  treatment  of  a  case  of  chronic  indigestion, 
especially  when  unwholesome  food  was  largely  responsible  for  this 
physical  malady.  It  is  of  equal  importance,  if  not  more  important, 
to  take  into  consideration  those  elements  that  are  harmful  or  health- 
ful in  the  growth,  and  development,  and  stability,  and  maintenance 
of  mind  and  character.  The  physician  who  ignores  the  psychic 
element  in  the  consideration  of  sickness  and  disease  is  as  one- 
sided as  the  Christian  scientists  who  refuse  to  recognize  the  needs 
of  the  body.  The  consideration  of  the  maintenance  of  the  health 
of  an  individual  involves  those  factors  that  maintain  and  sustain 
health  and  strength  of  both  mind  and  body. 

How  many  thousands  of  people  have  died  before  men  found  out 
which  were  poisons  and  which  were  foods?  To  teach  by  killing, 
that  others  may  learn  to  use  their  faculties,  has  been  the  method 
of  the  cosmic  process  in  the  evolution  and  development  of  the 
human  being.  Even  today  the  greater  part  of  sickness  and  dis- 
ease is  but  nature's  protest  against  human  beings  for  violating 
her  laws — physical,  hygienic,  dietetic,  psychical,  etc.  In  the  con- 
sideration of  those  factors  that  contribute  to  human  health  and 
happiness,  all  these  elements  must  be  considered. 

Every  step  taken  by  the  scientific  men  of  the  medical  profession 
to  abolish  cholera,  smallpox,  and  yellow  fever  has  been  opposed 


FURTHER    CONSIDERATION    OF   PSYCHOTHERAPY.  125 

by  mystics  and  sentimentalists.  Although  thousands  of  lives  have 
been  saved  by  improved  sanitation,  hygiene,  dietetics,  disinfection, 
and  asepsis  in  the  physical  realm,  there  is  a  field  of  no  less  im- 
portance in  the  psychological  realm  that  needs  to  be  fumigated, 
disinfected,  drained,  and  cleared  of  parasites  that  live  and  thrive 
upon  the  ignorance  and  superstition  of  weakness  and  innocence. 
Modern  science  is  turning  the  great  searchlight  of  truth  into  every 
dark  corner  where  these  poisonous  microbes  may  be  found  lurking. 

The  universal  acceptance  of  the  doctrine  of  evolution  by  all 
the  important  nonsectarian  universities  in  our  country  and  by 
the  more  enlightened  theological  schools  has  sounded  the  death 
knell  of  the  old  formulated  creeds  and  dogmas  based  upon  the 
ideas  of  special  creation  that  has  fettered  the  aspiring  spirit  of 
humanity  so  long.  To  say  that  you  believe  in  the  doctrine  of 
evolution  is  but  to  say  that  you  believe  in  nature's  way  of  doing 
things,  and  of  all  classes  of  people  who  ought  to  be  ready  to  accept 
this  important  truth,  and  give  the  people  the  benefit  of  the  light 
it  sheds  upon  human  life  and  conduct,  the  men  of  the  learned  pro- 
fessions should  be  the  first. 

_Fear,  an  emotion  which  is  the  result  of  art  analysis  of  conse- 
quences, has  been  instilled  in  the  human  mind  by  the  teachers  and 
preachers  of  anthropomorphic  theism  until  the  great  masses  of 
people  who  are  not  sufficiently  educated  to  think  for  themselves 
have  been  unconsciously  dominated,  and  development  of  body, 
mind,  and  character  suppressed. 

The  revelations  made  by  scientific  investigators  do  not  take  God 
out  of  the  world,  but  render  us  more  intimately  self-conscious  of 
his  all-pervading  presence.  Moreover,  they  only  add  new  luster 
to  the  matchless  character  whose  simple  teaching  of  faith,  hope, 
and  love  has  for  two  thousand  years  stirred  the  noblest  impulses 
of  the  human  soul,  and  proved  to  be  the  greatest  factor  in  the 
evolution  of  the  ethical  and  moral  element  of  the  human  race,  in 
spite  of  the  war,  and  bloodshed,  and  destruction  of  human  lives 
that  have  been  perpetrated  by  religious  sects  pretending  to  be  his 
followers. 

The  great  need  of  the  world  today  is  men  to  interpret  life  in 
the  light  of  present-day  knowledge,  and  to  tell  the  people  the  truth 


126  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

as  the  more  enlightened  individuals  see  it,  and  who  will  not  falter 
and  be  cowardly  on  account  of  the  ignorance  and  superstition 
of  ages  past  and  gone  that  are  still  exercising  their  demoralizing 
influence  upon  our  present  civilization.  All  the  modern  creeds  and 
cults,  "ists"  and  "isms"  of  the  present  day,  are  but  an  evidence 
of  the  recoil  of  the  people  from  the  dogmatism  and  intolerance  of 
medicine  and  theology. 

With  the  present  conception  and  theory  of  the  origin  and  destiny 
of  man,  the  individual  has  made  a  wonderful  discovery.  He  has 
learned  that  he  is  no  longer  a  serf,  but  that  he,  too,  has  creative 
power,  and  he  dares  to  give  it  manifest  expression  in  his  life  and 
conduct.  With  this  changed  mental  attitude  toward  the  universe 
and  its  process  of  development,  he  has  been  made  self-conscious 
of  the  God  in  his  own  soul,  and  life  has  a  zest  and  meaning  which 
is  equivalent  to  having  put  him  into  a  new  world.  It  has  altered 
his  conception  of  himself  and  his  relation  to  all  forms  of  life, 
and  he  realizes  as  never  before  his  intimate  relation,  and  responsi- 
bility, and  duty  to  his  fellowman.  He  no  longer  considers  him- 
self a  stranger  and  an  exile  in  a  foreign  country,  but  here  and 
now  he  is  at  home,  securely  abiding  in  the  great,  living,  throbbing, 
pulsating  heart  of  nature.  Side  by  side  with  his  fellowman  is  he 
permitted  to  work,  and  in  his  own  way  to  contribute  his  best  efforts 
to  the  furtherance  of  human  happiness. 

No  class  of  human  beings  has  done  so  much  for  its  brethren  as 
the  members  of  the  medical  profession.  In  dens  of  poverty,  fields 
of  pestilence,  or  amid  the  heat  of  shot  and  shell  in  war,  they  are 
ever  conspicuous  for  their  presence.  Day  and  night,  through  heat 
and  cold,  sunshine  or  rain,  they  are  found  anywhere,  from  the 
lowest  brothels  to  gilded  palaces,  in  laboratories  and  hospitals,  amid 
contagious  diseases  or  with  the  insane,  laboring  to  promote  the 
comfort,  health,  and  happiness  of  their  fellows. 

Ignorant  mankind  has  been  so  long  preached  the  worm  of  the 
dust  theory,  and  been  taught  to  call  himself  weak,  humble,  power- 
less, and  worthless,  until  many  have  become  so  on  account  of  their 
own  thinking.  Let  them  once  get  a  glimpse  of  their  divine  origin, 
in  the  light  of  modern  evolutionary  knowledge,  and  dare  to  ex- 
ercise their  faculties  and  inherent  capabilities  of  body  and  mind 


FURTHER   CONSIDERATION   OP   PSYCHOTHERAPY.  127 

on  lines  of  useful  endeavor,  and  seek  health  by  conforming  to 
the  conditions  of  health,  and  dare  to  claim  and  exercise  the  ability 
to  think,  will,  reason,  and  do  for  themselves,  and  many  there  are 
in  this  world  who,  like  Pygmalion's  statue  Galatea,  will  be  trans- 
formed into  beings  of  life. 

We  are  beginning  to  look  at  ourselves  with  new  eyes.  The 
old  religions,  which  condemn  the  body  as  vile  and  sinful,  and  ad- 
vocate a  locality  of  everlasting  punishment,  are  passing  away. 
We  now  realize  that  the  mind  helps  the  body  as  much  as  the 
body  helps  the  mind;  that  mind,  body,  and  spirit  are  qualities  of 
the  one  individual,  and  that  within  every  human  being  lies  the 
power,  through  intelligent  living,  acting,  and  thinking,  to  develop 
both  mind  and  body  into  a  high  degree  of  perfection. 

The  human  will,  guided  by  reason,  is  the  positive  part  of  our 
mental  equipment  and  the  body  is  the  negative,  responsive  to  its 
rulings  and  dictates.  Intelligent,  logical  thinking  as  the  result  of 
education  and  experience,  effort  and  determination,  are  the  great 
factors  of  growth  and  the  most  powerful  forces  in  the  universe. 
It  is  force  itself  in  its  voluntary  human  expression.  By  these  all 
other  forces  of  nature  are  controlled  and  utilized  for  the  happiness 
of  man. 

We  have  nothing  to  fear  from  the  modern  unlicensed  systems 
of  healing  which  have  arisen  out  of  the  development  of  a  better 
appreciation  of  the  psychic  qualities  of  man  within  the  past  twenty 
years.  The  fittest  will  survive.  As  among  Ruskin  's  lilies,  the  sun- 
flowers and  weeds  shoot  up  their  heads  in  gorgeous  array,  and 
they  are  only  giving  expression  to  a  single  phase  of  truth.  The 
universe  is  big  enough  to  furnish  a  stage  of  action  for  us  all; 
so  let  them  do  their  little  stunts  in  peace. 

The  coming  physician,  however,  must  of  necessity  be  a  broad- 
gauged  and  well-educated  man.  His  therapeutic  armamentarium 
and  mental  equipment  will  be  such  as  to  enable  him  to  avail  him- 
self of  all  methods  of  treatment — physical,  mental,  social,  moral, 
ethical — that  make  for  the  health  and  happiness  of  his  patient, 

A  large  percentage  of  the  people  who  are  sick,  ailing,  or  com- 
plaining do  not  need  medicine  or  surgery.  What  many  of  them 
really  need,  though  they  may  not  be  cognizant  of  their  need,  is 


128  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

direction  and  advice,  knowledge  and  guidance,  all  suggestive  meas- 
ures that  enable  them  to  conform  to  the  conditions  by  which  the 
wonderful  recuperative  powers  inherent  in  the  biological  elements 
of  the  organism  can  have  a  chance  to  re-establish  health.  Human 
beings  are  so  constituted  that  they  can  not,  in  this  infantile  stage 
of  their  development,  stand  alone.  The  great  organism  of  hu- 
manity must  have  men  strong,  capable,  self-reliant,  and  well- 
educated  to  direct  and  influence  the  functions  of  the  great  mass 
of  the  people,  just  as  the  higher  centers  of  the  brain  influence 
all  the  lower  bodily  functions. 

The  hunger  of  the  body  for  bread  and  fruit,  meat  and  vege- 
tables, is  no  more  real  than  the  hunger  of  the  human  intellect  for 
facts  and  principles  by  which  life  and  conduct  may  be  guided. 

The  charlatanism  of  the  past  twenty  years  has  an  important 
message  for  the  medical  profession,  as  it  has  also  for  theologians. 
In  hundreds  and  thousands  of  instances  have  they  demonstrated 
to  us  that  there  are  mental  and  physical  causes  of  diseases,  on 
the  one  hand,  and  that  diseases  of  the  physical  organism,  not  too 
far  advanced,  can  be  benefited,  ameliorated,  and  oftentimes  cured 
by  correcting  these  perverted  mental  conditions,  on  the  other. 

Science  has  pointed  out  and  discovered  the  mental  toxemia  that 
has  been  disseminated  and  scattered  broadcast  unconsciously  and 
unintentionally  by  the  halting,  time-worn,  moth-eaten,  and  useless 
systems  of  education  and  ecclesiasticism,  and  there  are  thousands 
and  thousands  of  individuals  who  need  help  in  the  way  of  aid  to 
enable  them  to  do  rational,  intelligent  thinking  and  living. 

What  is  disease?  I  believe  that  even  Virchow  would  agree  that 
it  is  a  condition  wherein  the  cells  of  the  part  affected  do  not 
properly  perform  their  functions.  At  first  it  begins  as  a  mere 
so-called  functional  disturbance,  which,  though  the  aid  of  the 
microscope  be  required  to  detect  it,  always  implies  a  physical 
change ;  at  least  there  is  a  lessened  degree  of  resistive  power  in  the 
cells  of  the  organism.  In  this  weakened  condition  the  individual 
cells  are  more  vulnerable  and  are  unqualified  to  put  up  a  strong 
fight  against  their  enemies.  Now  an  exciting  cause  of  disease 
comes  along  in  the  form  of  a  pathogenic  germ  or  other  etiologinal 
factor.  In  the  case  of  the  bacteriological  infection  a  fight  ensues. 


FURTHER    CONSIDERATION    OP    PSYCHOTHERAPY.  129 

Brave  and  altruistic  little  men  as  they  are,  the  phagocytes  throw 
their  bodies  into  the  combat  to  destroy  the  pathogenic  enemy  by 
intracellular  digestion,  or  if,  forsooth,  they  fail  in  this,  they  pile 
up  their  bodies  by  the  thousands  and  millions,  to  build,  as  it  were, 
an  impenetrable  breastwork  for  the  protection  of  the  remaining 
cells  of  the  organism,  each  one  anxious  and  willing  to  sacrifice 
his  own  life  that  his  fellows  may  be  protected.  Thus  an  organic 
or  structural  change  takes  place,  and  this  may  then  be  beyond 
the  pale  of  psychological  methods  of  treatment. 

But,  in  conjunction  with  surgical,  medicinal,  and  other  thera- 
peutic measures,  we  can,  by  psychological  methods,  aid  in  the 
re-establishment  of  every  other  bodily  function  which  may  have 
been  disturbed  on  account  of  this  local,  organic,  or  pathological 
condition;  and  so  we  not  only  help  the  individual  in  a  general 
way,  but  we  indirectly  aid  in  the  healing  processes  of  surgical 
procedures,  and  supplement  medicinal  and  other  therapeutic  de- 
vices. We  quiet  nervousness,  relieve  pain,  and  promote  sleep. 
The  result  is  better  appetite,  increased  digestion  and  assimilation, 
improved  nutrition,  and  a  consequent  conservation  of  energy 
throughout  the  entire  physical  organism. 

So,  then,  it  must  appear  to  the  logical  mind  that  there  is  no 
class  of  cases,  acute  or  chronic,  surgical  or  otherwise,  in  which  the 
psychological  factor  does  not  play  an  important  part  in  conjunc- 
tion with  all  other  methods  of  therapeutics. 


CHAPTER  VHI. 
THE    PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC    VALUE    OF    SUGGESTION. 

Observation  has  convinced  me  that  comparatively  few  people 
at  the  present  time  fully  realize  the  potency  of  the  imagination — 
of  an  idea  pure  and  simple — as  a  factor  in  the  cause  and  cure  of 
disease.  Suggestion,  applied  either  with  or  without  hypnotism,  is 
but  the  employment  of  man's  imagining  power,  his  perceptive 
faculties,  as  a  means  of  stimulating  the  normal  physiological  mech- 
anisms of  the  human  organization  for  therapeutic  purposes.  All 
suggestions  are  composed  of  ideas  which  influence  the  actions,  or 
motions,  and  beliefs  of  human  beings  endowed  with  normal  mental 
faculties  and  bodily  functions.  Observation  and  experiment  has 
clearly  demonstrated  that  the  representation  of  an  action  or  move- 
ment is  an  action  or  movement  begun,  an  action  or  movement  in 
the  nascent  state.  These  representations,  or  suggestions,  or  mental 
images  influence  one's  motor  and  voluntary  actions  and  move- 
ments, and  the  involuntary  physiological  actions  and  movements 
of  the  human  organization  as  well. 

Every  representation  or  perception  is  a  suggestion  which  pre- 
supposes actions  and  movements  to  some  extent,  and  these  repre- 
sentations or  perceptions  are  the  remnants  of  some  past  perception, 
the  physiological  residue  of  some  past  mental  concept  that  has 
been  retained  by  the  neuron  elements.  These  physiological  proc- 
esses or  complexes,  conserved  as  the  result  of  some  previous  ex- 
perience, can  be  called  into  functional  activity  by  mere  mental 
representations  or  suggestions,  and  in  this  way  employed  for  thera- 
peutic purposes.  I  hold  before  you  a  lemon  cut  in  half.  I  say 
to  you  I  am  going  to  suck  the  juice  of  this  lemon  in  your  presence, 
and  by  giving  attention  to  the  procedure  your  salivary  glands  will 
begin  to  functionate.  You  readily  see  the  effect  of  the  suggestion 
as  a  physiological  stimulant. 

I  have  before  me  a  number  of  physicians.  A  man  is  brought 

130 


PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC   VALUE   OF   SUGGESTION.  131 

into  our  presence  who  was  a  stranger  to  us  all.  I  hold  before 
him  a  vial  of  an  inert  liquid,  .and  tell  him  that  it  is  my  desire  to 
demonstrate  its  effect  upon  him  before  the  physicians  present.  By 
representation,  mental  image,  or  suggestion  an  effect  is  produced 
that  is  questioned  by  none  present. 

When  a  lad  I  took  some  clay  pills  to  Sarah,  the  cook,  who  was 
sick  in  a  hut  in  the  rear  of  the  premises.  They  had  been  made 
of  soft  clay  and  rolled  in  wheat  flower,  and  resembled  a  pill  com- 
posed of  calomel,  aloes,  and  rhubarb,  which  was  employed  by  my 
father  as  a  domestic  remedy.  Sarah  supposed  that  the  pills  had 
been  sent  by  him,  as  was  his  custom,  and  swallowed  them  without 
question,  and  on  the  next  morning  reported  for  duty,  feeling  much 
better  because  her  bowel  movements  had  been  so  satisfactory  as  the 
result  of  the  inert  clay. 

We  understand  that  both  glandular  action  and  visceral  func- 
tions, having  once  been  called  into  increased  activity  by  the  taste 
of  a  lemon,  or  the  physiological  action  of  a  purgative  pill,  have 
been  accompanied  by  definite  brain  changes  as  the  result  of  the 
psychophysiological  action  that  these  experiences  had  left  upon  the 
neuron  elements,  and  these  conserved  physiological  complexes  are 
stimulated  by  the  psychic  influence  of  the  mention  of  a  lemon,  or 
the  presence  of  an  inert  clay  pill  which  resembled  the  medicine 
producing  the  original  experience,  and  the  same  physiological  ac- 
tion is  reproduced,  in  conformance  to  the  laws  governing  the  nor- 
mal functions  of  the  nervous  system.  This  is  a  simple  demon- 
stration of  the  well-accepted  fact  of  physiological  psychology,  so 
often  repeated,  that  the  nervous  system  faithfully  conserves  and 
reproduces  its  experiences. 

The  principle  above  illustrated  we  see  applied  in  a  most  crude 
and  unscientific  manner  by  all  forms  of  present-day  quackery. 
The  nervous  system  responds  to  the  physiological  stimulus  of  spoken 
words;  or  to  the  various  methods  of  treatment  which  make  em- 
ployment of  tactile  sensations — massage — as  a  means  of  rein- 
forcing the  sense  impressions ;  or  to  oral  suggestion,  used  consciously 
or  unconsciously,  by  the  treatment  administered. 

In  a  town  of  five  thousand  visited  by  the  writer  there  was  a 
physician  engaged  in  the  practice  of  medicine  who  was  an  unquali- 


132  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

fied  ignoramus,  but  the  results  obtained  through  the  employment 
of  psychotherapeutic  principles,  used  in  disguise,  enabled  him  to 
do  more  work  and  to  practice  with  better  success  than  the  several 
well-educated  physicians  who  were  his  competitors. 

He  enjoyed  the  reputation  of  knowing  exactly  what  his  medicine 
would  do,  owing  to  his  methods  of  impressing  his  suggestions  upon 
the  consciousness  of  his  patients.  One  of  his  methods  was  to  give 
a  dose  of  medicine  after  each  meal  and  then  instruct  his  patient 
to  lie  down  for  twenty  minutes,  "to  let  his  stomach  take  up"- 
giving  him  the  positive  assurance  that  he  would  digest  that  meal 
perfectly,  and  that  by  the  time  the  bottle  of  medicine  was  taken 
he  could  eat  what  he  pleased  and  never  know  that  he  possessed  a 
stomach. 

Another  one  of  his  methods  was  to  give  seven  drops  of  medicine 
every  seven  minutes  for  seven  doses,  beginning  to  give  the  first 
dose  at  seven  minutes  past  seven  o'clock,  as  a  sure  remedy  for 
insomnia.  "When  you  take  the  seventh  dose,  turn  out  the  lights 
and  shut  your  eyes,  and  you  will  never  know  when  eight  o'clock 
comes,  and  you  will  sleep  soundly  all  night. ' ' 

He  had  pretended  specifics  for  any  and  every  condition,  and 
in  all  cases  charged  a  stiff  price,  paid  in  advance.  Too  ignorant 
to  be  aware  of  his  limitations,  this  untrained  egotist  had  uncon- 
sciously stumbled  upon  a  method  of  dealing  with  his  patients  that 
evoked  the  psychologic  factor,  while  he,  and  his  patients  as  well, 
were  deluded  into  believing  that  his  medicines  actually  accom- 
plished the  therapeutic  results  represented.  He  did  obtain  the 
results  that  he  represented  as  the  result  of  his  suggestions,  in 
perfect  conformity  to  psychophysiological  law,  by  employing  the 
normal  mechanisms  of  the  physiological  machinery  to  accomplish 
the  results,  supposed  to  be  due  to  his  medicines.  The  other  phy- 
sicians of  this  town  were  puzzled  to  know  what  remedies  he  used 
that  were  proving  so  trustworthy. 

In  one  of  our  cosmopolitan  cities  an  ignorant  Italian  was  treat- 
ing in  his  office  on  an  average  sixty  patients  per  day  by  laying 
his  hands  on  them,  and  he  had  kept  up  this  practice  for  three 
years  at  the  time  that  he  came  to  my  notice.  He  stated  that  upon 
one  occasion  he  went  to  see  a  "divine  healer,"  who  at  once  as- 


PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC   VALUE   OF   SUGGESTION.  IM 

serted,  "You  have  too  much  power  for  me  to  treat  you;  you  are 
a  healer  yourself."  When  he  returned  home  he  related  his  ex- 
perience to  his  mother,  who  was  suffering  with  a  severe  headache, 
and  for  three  years  had  what  her  physician  had  diagnosed  as 
diabetes.  Her  headache  was  dispersed  as  soon  as  he  put  his  hands 
upon  her,  and  in  a  short  period  all  her  diabetic  symptoms  had 
been  relieved.  On  the  strength  of  this  result  his  neighbors  began 
to  call  to  see  him  for  treatment,  and  when  asked  what  he  could 
do  for  them  respectively  he  invariably  answered,  "I  can  only  tell 
what  I  have  done  for  others,"  and,  with  his  hands  placed  on  them, 
he  began  to  relate  his  experiences  with  the  wonderful  cures  he  had 
made. 

In  one  corner  of  his  office  was  a  pile  of  mechanical  appliances 
that  had  been  discarded  by  his  patients  as  the  result  of  his  treat- 
ment. He  believed  that  his  ability  to  benefit  people  by  placing 
his  hands  upon  them  was  "a  gift  from  God,"  and  he  could  talk 
of  nothing  else,  being  a  miserable  psychoneurotic  himself.  His 
manifestations  of  irritability  and  weakness  he  regarded  as  being 
due  to  giving  so  much  of  his  own  strength  to  his  patients.  A 
well-known  physician  of  that  city,  who  had  been  impressed  by  the 
remarkable  results  of  his  work,  both  palliative  and  curative,  in- 
sisted that  I  should  interview  him  as  a  psychotherapeutic  curiosity, 
and  it  was  through  his  interest  in  his  work  that  I  obtained  the 
facts  that  are  here  related. 

In  another  place  visited  by  the  writer  the  monthly  receipts  of 
an  old  lady  who  employed  "absent  treatment"  as  a  therapeutic 
means  amounted  to  between  eight  and  ten  thousand  dollars.  She 
conversed  intelligently  about  the  value  of  suggestion  as  a  thera- 
peutic agent,  and  admitted  frankly  that  her  results  were  obtained 
by  the  combined  employment  of  suggestion  and  deception.  She 
had  numerous  letters  from  apparently  intelligent  people  declaring 
their  gratitude  for  the  relief  that  they  had  received  through  her 
treatment,  and  she  was  undoubtedly  bringing  relief  to  hundreds 
and  thousands  of  psychoneurotics  when  the  United  States  govern- 
ment interfered  with  her  game. 

If  people  were  credulous  enough  to  pay  her  the  price  in  advance, 
they  were  sufficiently  amenable  to  her  suggestions  through  letter 


134  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

to  be  benefited  by  her.  Hers  was  one  method  of  employing  the 
normal  potentialities  of  the  physiological  machinery  of  the  human 
organization  as  a  therapeutic  resource. 

In  another  city  visited  by  the  writer  a  physician  was  employing 
a  small  electric  light  to  look  down  his  patient's  esophagus  to  diag- 
nose stomach  diseases.  He  ostensibly  described  all  sorts  of  morbid 
conditions,  frightened  his  patients  into  paying  a  good  fee  in 
advance,  and  then  proceeded  to  produce  a  remedy  that  was  sup- 
posed to  give  infallible  results.  A  former  classmate  called  his 
attention  to  the  absurdity  of  his  methods,  and  asked  if  he  did  not 
know  that  such  procedures  could  appeal  only  to  unintelligent 
people.  He,  in  turn,  asked  what  percentage  of  that  city's  popu- 
lation was  intelligent  people. 

' '  About  five  percent, ' '  was  the  reply. 

"Then  you  go  on  and  practice  for  that  five  percent,"  said  he, 
"I  shall  continue  to  work  for  the  remaining  ninety-five  per- 
cent." 

This  physician's  answer,  "I  shall  continue  to  work  for  the 
remaining  ninety-five  percent,"  indicates  the  proportion  of  the 
human  race  that  is  highly  suggestible.  In  fact,  all  people  are  in- 
fluenced by  some  method  of  suggestion.  Some  are  amenable  to 
reason,  and  others  respond  through  credulity. 

Such  procedures  are  not  limited  alone  to  those  supposed  to  be 
flagrant  charlatans.  If  the  employment  of  suggestion  in  disguise 
is  an  indication  of  quackery,  it  causes  one  to  seriously  consider 
the  question,  Where  is  an  honest  man  to  be  found? 

Consciously  or  unconsciously,  all  physicians  make  employment 
of  suggestion  in  conjunction  with  the  special  therapeutic,  sur- 
gical, and  mechanical  devices  employed  in  the  treatment  of  disease, 
and  very  frequently  the  benefit  that  resulted  from  some  special 
method  of  treatment  or  surgical  operation  was  due  to  the  psycho- 
therapeutic  effect  of  the  procedure  as  a  psychophysiological  stimu- 
lant, just  as  were  the  results  obtained  by  the  physician  pretending 
to  use  the  electric  light  as  a  diagnostic  means. 

Physicians  in  general  have  had  but  little  or  no  training  in 
psychotherapeutic  principles,  and  consequently  they  are  unpre- 
pared to  appreciate  the  importance  of  such  measures  as  an  adjunct 


PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC    VALUE   OP   SUGGESTION.  135 

to  the  resources  of  the  general  practitioner.  They  do  not  mean 
to  overestimate  the  importance  of  surgery,  medicine,  electricity, 
and  other  therapeutic  devices.  They  are  putting  into  application 
what  they  have  been  taught,  for  upon  this  branch  of  therapeutics 
they  have  had  no  training. 

Here  is  a  surgeon  doing  several  operations  upon  a  neurotic 
woman,  consisting  of  a  ventral  fixation,  an  appendectomy,  an  ovari- 
otomy, a  curettage,  and  a  perineorrhaphy.  She  was  sufficiently 
amenable  to  suggestion  to  submit  to  his  procedures  just  as  were 
the  patients  of  the  physician  who  employed  the  innocent  electric 
light. 

Because  psychic  treatment  is  abused  by  the  quack,  the  charlatan, 
and  even  by  some  physicians,  many  pseudo-conservative  physicians 
are  disposed  to  turn  a  cold  shoulder  to  it,  as  if  the  neglect  of  a 
potent  and  legitimate  therapeutic  resource  was  more  disgraceful 
and  distasteful  than  its  abuse.  The  announcement  that  Temple 
University,  of  Philadelphia,  has  completed  arrangements  for  the 
establishment  of  a  department  for  teaching  methods  of  healing 
without  drugs  is  significant.  This  department  of  "nonpharma- 
ceutic  therapeutics,"  which  will  include  radiotherapy,  electro- 
therapy, massage,  suggestion,  baths,  etc.,  is  but  the  employment  of 
suggestive  measures  in  disguise,  which  are  already  employed  by 
physicians  and  surgeons  in  general,  under  the  pretense  of  some- 
thing tangible.  This  form  of  suggestion  to  the  student  of  psycho- 
therapy is  everywhere  in  evidence  in  the  practice  of  medicine  and 
surgery,  though  often  used  unconsciously  by  those  applying  it. 

That  medicine,  surgery,  hydrotherapy,  radiotherapy,  massage, 
dietetics,  gymnastics,  exercise,  etc.,  have  a  definite  field  of  their 
own,  in  well-selected  cases,  none  but  a  tyro  would  dispute,  but  that 
the  results  that  accrue  by  their  employment  are  more  frequently 
due  to  the  psychic  influence  of  these  measures  than  to  their  own 
therapeutic  potency  is  beyond  question.  It  is  time  we  should  face 
this  question  squarely,  and  appropriate  all  measures  that  are  of 
therapeutic  value,  whether  employed  singly  or  combined. 

When  it  is  considered  that  two  million  Christian  scientists  follow 
their  leader  on  account  of  the  psychotherapeutic  value  of  her 
dogma  of  negation  and  affirmation,  and  that  this  form  of  disguised 


136  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

suggestion  has  been  responsible  for  thousands  of  cures  of  real  dis- 
eases, the  facts  are  indisputable  by  a  fair-minded  observer. 

That  osteopaths,  Weltmerites,  Emanuelists,  and  others,  who  most 
crudely  and  unscientifically  employ  psychotherapeutic  measures, 
obtain  results  by  the  employment  of  their  special  methods  of  treat- 
ment is  conceded  by  thousands  of  physicians  in  all  parts  of  the 
United  States.  Moreover,  they  bear  testimony  to  the  fact  that  the 
results  have  frequently  been  obtained  in  a  class  of  cases  which  were 
not  amenable  to  treatment  by  the  methods  generally  employed  by 
physicians.  Why  refuse,  under  the  right  name,  the  employment  of 
the  tools  used  by  all  forms  of  quackery,  and  by  honest  physicians 
and  surgeons  who  use  the  same  methods,  in  some  degree,  in  dis- 
guise? Why  continue  the  abuse  of  medicine  and  surgery  in  so 
many  instances  when  intelligent  people  are  demanding  honest,  ra- 
tional treatment?  Many  methods  of  treatment  are  employed  by 
physicians  at  the  present  time  which  are  tolerated  by  the  laity 
solely  on  account  of  their  ignorance  of  more  rational  and  effective 
measures.  Is  it  right  to  impose  upon  innocence  and  ignorance 
simply  because  our  medical  schools  have  not  equipped  physicians 
in  general  to  make  employment  of  psychotherapeutic  principles  ? 

When  we  fail  to  employ  rational  psychic  measures  as  an  adjunct 
to  all  other  forms  of  treatment,  can  we  blame  the  people  for  seek- 
ing aid  from  sources  where  such  treatment  is  employed,  however 
injudiciously  and  unscientifically?  That  all  but  a  few  of  the 
teachers  of  medicine  occupying  professorships  in  our  medical  col- 
leges are  mere  babes  in  the  art  of  making  employment  of  psycho- 
therapeutic  methods,  I  know  from  actual  experience  in  my  associ- 
ation with  those  constituting  the  faculties  of  not  less  than  thirty- 
five  medical  schools  and  universities.  In  my  association  with  such 
men  in  the  capacity  of  teacher  of  methods  of  employing  suggestion, 
with  and  without  hypnotism,  they  were  eager  to  learn  and  were 
thoroughly  convinced  of  the  efficacy  and  practicability  of  such 
measures,  but  were  often  free  to  say  that  it  was  much  easier  to 
employ  medicine  and  surgery,  and  they  preferred  to  continue  the 
old  regimen. 

Most  certainly  it  is  easier  to  remove  the  appendix  of  a  neuras- 
thenic, and  collect  a  good  fee  for  this  simple  operation,  and  leave 


PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC    VALUE   OP   SUGGESTION.  137 

all  psychotherapeutic  treatment  to  the  unconscious  employment  of 
such  measures  by  the  environing  factors  of  his  treatment  during 
recuperation  for  two  or  more  weeks  in  a  hospital.  People  are 
driven  by  fear  into  the  submission  to  all  kinds  of  irrational  meas- 
ures that  promise  health  in  the  place  of  disease.  Surgery  for  the 
relief  of  gross  pathological  changes  is  indispensable,  but  most  of 
the  surgery  done  at  the  present  time  is  for  some  minor  structural 
change,  attributed  to  some  special  organ,  when  the  cells  of  the 
entire  organism  share  in  the  degeneracy,  the  remedy  for  which  is 
the  general  physical  and  mental  reconstruction  which  follows  a 
course  of  sane  treatment  by  suggestion,  dietetics,  exercise,  and 
gymnastics. 

But  suggestion  is  applicable  also  as  an  adjunct  in  the  treatment 
of  the  acute,  febrile,  and  infectious  diseases  found  in  the  routine 
work  of  the  general  practitioner,  as  well  as  in  functional  nervous 
diseases. 

Gowers  tells  us  that  our  therapeutics  were  much  more  successful, 
in  certain  nervous  diseases,  before  so  much  of  its  pathology  was 
definitely  understood.  It  is  not  enough  to  be  able  to  tell  a  patient 
that  a  certain  pathological  process  is  present  in  the  liver,  kidney, 
stomach,  lungs,  nervous  system,  or  other  bodily  organ.  We  should 
be  prepared  to  teach  him  to  so  conform  to  the  physiological  require- 
ments of  health  that  such  processes  will  be  arrested,  their  function 
restored,  and  the  health  of  the  individual  secured  and  maintained. 

Here  is  a  man  with  all  the  clinical  symptoms  of  gastric  ulcer. 
His  physician,  in  accordance  with  the  advice  of  our  best  medical 
authorities,  is  satisfied  to  prescribe  bismuth  subnitrate  or  mag- 
nesium carbonate,  to  be  taken  an  hour  before  meals,  when  he  should 
have  explained  to  him  the  necessity  of  a  complete  rest  to  his  stom- 
ach in  the  incipiency  of  his  trouble,  being  given  such  rest  for  from 
five  to  ten  days  by  a  complete  fast,  and  advised  the  necessity  of 
keeping  his  stomach  cleansed  by  drinking  frequent  draughts  of  hot 
water,  and  water  at  a  normal  bodily  temperature  every  hour,  with 
an  enema  every  night,  to  give  his  nervous  system  an  opportunity 
to  be  qualified  to  perform  the  function  of  digesting  his  food;  and 
he  should  afterward  have  outlined  a  rational  dietetic  regimen,  to 
conform  to  the  requirements  of  his  individual  case. 


138  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

Here  is  another  physician  who  strives  to  maintain  the  nitrog- 
enous and  carbon  equilibrium  of  certain  patients  by  an  exam- 
ination of  the  stools,  as  if  the  calculation  of  the  nitrogen  and  carbon 
in  a  food  signified  its  value  to  the  human  body  unless  it  could  at 
the  same  time  be  demonstrated  that  it  is  assimilable.  By  psycho- 
therapeutic  measures  we  enable  the  patient  to  digest  and  assimilate 
a  quantity  of  normal  food  products  in  such  quantities  as  to  pro- 
mote the  healthy  nutrition  of  the  body — quantities  far  beyond 
the  ability  of  the  patient  without  the  employment  of  such  meas- 
ures. 

The  value  of  this  therapeutic  resource  in  the  maintenance  of  a 
heightened  degree  of  resistive  power  of  the  organism,  and  of  as- 
sisting nature  in  combating  morbid  processes,  is  beyond  question, 
as  is  demonstrated  in  the  every-day  routine  of  those  who  make  em- 
ployment of  psychotherapeutic  principles. 

Contemporary  psychologists  have  firmly  established  the  fact  that 
suggestion  used  to  unduly  exaggerate  the  gravity  of  the  symptoms 
of  a  given  case  proves  to  be  a  powerful  psychophysiological  de- 
pressant, that  the  representation  of  a  movement  arrested  is  the 
beginning  of  the  stoppage  of  that  movement,  and  that  it  may  even 
end  in  the  complete  stoppage  of  that  function.  "Paralysis  by 
ideas"  is  not  infrequent  in  the  every-day  practice  of  the  physician 
whose  gloomy  prognosis  is  insinuated  upon  the  consciousness  of  his 
patient  and  those  in  attendance  upon  him.  This  condition  was 
referred  to  by  Charcot  under  the  name  of  "psychic  paralysis." 
The  conviction  on  the  part  of  the  patient  that  he  can  not  move  a 
limb  renders  him  powerless  for  any  movement,  and  he  recovers  his 
motor  power  only  when  the  morbid  representation  has  disappeared. 

Upon  one  occasion  I  suggested  to  a  young  man  that  his  knee  was 
stiff,  and  he  could  not  bend  it  until  I  gave  him  permission.  I 
handed  him  one  dollar,  and  told  him  that  if  he  could  bend  his 
knee  he  could  keep  the  money.  I  left  him,  and  the  next  day  he 
came  to  me  and  handed  me  the  money,  saying  that  he  was  a  mes- 
senger boy  and  could  not  ride  his  wheel  with  a  stiff  limb.  As  he 
handed  me  the  money  I  asserted  that  he  could  now  use  his  limb 
better  than  ever  before  in  his  life,  and  he  went  away  happy. 

This  influence  of  suggestion  is  not  limited  to  the  voluntary  and 


PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC   VALUE   OP   SUGGESTION.  139 

motor  functions,  but  to  the  involuntary  physiological  processes  as 
well.  All  sick  people  are  more  or  less  the  victims  of  their  fears. 
The  very  conviction  of  being  sick  and  incompetent,  which  impels 
them  to  seek  a  physician,  is  a  vivid  representation  or  autosugges- 
tion, which  inhibits  functional  activity. 

Very  frequently  a  physician  describes  the  pathological  process, 
makes  a  vivid  representation  of  the  diseased  condition,  and  leaves 
his  patient  in  a  more  complete  state  of  psychic  paralysis  than  be- 
fore coming  into  his  presence.  What  appears  as  the  result  of  these 
representations  or  suggestions  is  perhaps  entirely  new.  They  may 
be  without  precedent  in  the  life  of  the  individual,  but  the  phe- 
nomena are  present  nevertheless. 

It  matters  not  what  be  the  diseased  process,  make  your  patient 
feel  that  you  understand  the  nature  of  his  disease;  that  you  are 
master  of  the  situation;  leave  nothing  undone  to  strongly  implant 
the  conviction  of  recovery,  and  that  it  will  begin  from  the  very 
moment  that  he  begins  to  make  employment  of  the  measures  pre- 
scribed for  his  relief.  To  this  end  all  possible  available  thera- 
peutic expedients  are  serviceable,  not  only  for  the  direct  influence 
which  their  own  potency  may  exert  upon  the  diseased  process,  but 
as  a  direct  psychophysiological  stimulant  as  well. 

The  syphilologist,  doing  the  largest  specialty  practice  of  any 
physician  in  the  United  States,  is  a  strong  advocate  of  the  employ- 
ment of  suggestion  as  a  psychophysiological  stimulant  in  conjunc- 
tion with  the  administration  of  mercury.  Suggestion  employed  in 
this  disease  as  an  adjuvant  to  the  specific  medication  heightens  the 
resistive  power  of  every  cell  in  the  human  organization  and  won- 
derfully augments  the  patient's  recovery. 

In  the  treatment  of  typhoid  and  other  fevers  I  have  boldly  as- 
serted to  a  patient  that  a  glass  of  buttermilk  taken  every  three 
hours  would  enable  him  to  make  a  sure  and  rapid  recovery,  and  in 
such  cases  I  never  let  the  patient  get  away  from  this  conviction, 
while  at  the  same  time  making  use  of  such  other  therapeutic  ex- 
pedients as  deemed  advisable. 

Psychotherapy  is  applied  by  the  employment  of  suggestion,  both 
with  and  without  hypnotism,  and  it  finds  its  application  to  all 
forms  of  medical  practice  as  an  adjunct  to  the  recognized  thera- 


140  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

peutic  agencies,  whether  the  condition  be  acute  or  chronic,  gyneco- 
logic or  otherwise. 

Unquestionably  the  general  practice  of  medicine  is  the  field 
wherein  its  employment  is  attended  with  the  most  gratifying  re- 
sults. Without  an  intelligent  conception  of  psychotherapy,  so  many 
of  the  cases  of  the  general  practitioner  that  are  within  his  legiti- 
mate domain  are  likely  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  specialists,  who 
are  so  rapidly  crowding  him  out  of  work.  His  work  is  preventive 
as  well  as  curative,  and  many  of  the  more  serious  pathological 
lesions  begin  as  functional  disturbances,  the  neglect  of  which  results 
in  gross  pathologic  changes.  It  is  in  functional  disorders  that 
psychotherapy  is  pre-eminently  applicable,  and,  if  taken  in  their 
incipiency,  as  when  discovered  by  the  general  practitioner,  they 
could  be  easily  relieved  from  the  consequences  which  must  be  the 
inevitable  result  if  neglected. 

But  psychotherapy  finds  a  most  important  field  of  application  in 
the  treatment  of  the  acute  diseases  as  well.  The  writer  attended  a 
meeting  of  a  medical  society  where  the  employment  of  morphin 
hypodermatically  was  freely  advocated  for  the  relief  of  the  pain 
that  accompanies  acute  pneumonia.  It  was  no  surprise  to  me  that 
the  physician  advocating  its  employment  stated  that  fifty  percent 
of  his  cases  of  pneumonia  terminated  fatally. 

Another  physician  present  referred  to  the  hypodermatic  em- 
ployment of  morphin  as  ' '  a  sheet-anchor  for  the  relief  of  pain  that 
accompanies  acute  lobar  pneumonia,"  and  he  also  stated  that  at 
least  twenty-five  percent  of  his  pneumonia  cases  terminated  fatally. 

My  own  convictions  in  regard  to  the  dangerous  consequences 
of  the  employment  of  morphin  in  the  treatment  of  pneumonia 
were  such  that  I  felt  impelled  to  preface  my  remarks  in  opposition 
to  the  treatment  advised  by  the  statement  that  in  ten  years  of 
general  practice  I  had  treated  but  one  single  case  of  pneumonia 
that  terminated  fatally  in  a  person  above  two  years  of  age,  and 
that  was  in  the  case  of  an  elderly  person,  complicated  with  pleu- 
ritis  attended  with  an  enormous  effusion.  The  employment  of 
morphin  in  the  treatment  of  pneumonia,  I  said,  I  regarded  as 
criminal,  as  helping  the  disease  to  kill  the  patient,  nor  did  I 
hesitate  to  state  that  patients  who  recovered  under  such  treatment 


PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC    VALUE   OF   SUGGESTION.  141 

did  so  in  spite  of  the  disease  and  the  treatment.  Quinin  I  used 
in  moderate  quantities,  20  to  40  grains  per  day,  but  the  pain  and 
other  nervous  manifestations  I  controlled  by  the  alternate  appli- 
cation of  hot  and  cold  poultices,  or  hot  poultices  only,  together 
with  the  free  and  intelligent  employment  of  suggestion.  Of 
course  other  remedial  agencies  were  also  employed,  if  indicated, 
but  I  am  now  speaking  only  of  general  treatment. 

There  is  no  better  method  of  gaining  the  confidence  of  some 
patients  than  by  giving  a  drug  that  will  produce  specific  results, 
and  given  with  the  assurance  that  a  specified  result  can  be  ex- 
pected. Here  we  get  not  only  the  physiological  action  of  the 
drug  employed,  but  also  find  the  drug  producing  a  result  that  can 
be  specified  a  most  powerful  means  of  suggestion. 

There  are  in  the  experience  of  every  general  practitioner,  in 
certain  individual  cases,  crises  where  the  psychic  factor  has  decided 
the  recovery  or  nonrecovery  of  his  patient.  The  author  has  had  in 
his  own  experience  several  incidents  where  he  has  been  called  into 
consultation  to  see  individuals  who  were  seriously  ill,  where  the 
entire  family  had  confidence  in  his  judgment,  which  also  made  the 
patient  more  amenable  to  his  suggestions,  and  where  the  attending 
physician  had  practically  read  the  patient's  death  warrant  by  giv- 
ing an  unfavorable  prognosis  in  no  uncertain  terms;  and,  after 
making  an  examination,  he  has  begun  psychic  treatment  by  the 
positive  statement  to  the  patient,  "You  are  going  to  get  well  all 
right." 

In  one  such  case  that  happened  to  be  turned  over  to  me  after 
a  brief  absence,  where  the  physician  in  temporary  charge  had  given 
a  positive,  unfavorable  prognosis,  I  assured  the  patient  in  the 
presence  of  the  physician  at  my  first  visit  that  he  was  going  to 
get  well,  that  the  treatment  that  he  was  on  was  precisely  the  right 
one,  that  a  decided  change  for  the  better  would  take  place  that 
very  night.  The  physician,  a  very  dear  friend  of  mine,  followed 
me  out  of  the  room,  and  in  a  subdued  tone,  addressing  me  by  name, 
said,  "I  hate  to  see  you  fall  so  hard.  There  is  no  more  possibility 
of  that  patient  getting  well  than  there  is  of  your  taking  wings  and 
flying." 

The  case  in  question  was  that  of  an  old  man  seventy-eight  years 


142  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

of  age,  who  had  been  sick  for  ten  days  with  grippe,  and  who  now 
had  an  acute  lobar  pneumonia.  The  prognosis  given  by  the  phy- 
sician in  this  case  was  just  such  as  ninety-nine  physicians  out  of  a 
hundred,  who  did  not  fully  recognize  the  value  of  the  psychic 
factor  in  therapeutics,  would  have  given  in  such  a  case. 

''Why  do  you  say  that  he  will  not  get  well?"  I  asked. 

"It  is  my  opinion,  based  upon  the  pathological  conditions,  to- 
gether with  his  age  and  continued  illness, ' '  was  his  reply. 

"But  my  opinion  is  that  he  will  get  well,"  said  I. 

"Yes,  but  you  are  not  doing  right  to  make  him  believe  that  he 
is  going  to  get  well  when  he  is  so  sick, ' '  said  he  most  kindly. 

"But,  Doctor,  that  is  just  what  is  going  to  make  him  get  well; 
because  I  can  make  him  believe  it  will  strengthen  the  bridge  that 
is  to  tide  him  over  to  recovery. ' ' 

After  that  I  assumed  control  of  the  situation,  and  allowed  no 
one  to  enter  that  room  who  did  not  believe  that  the  patient  was 
going  to  recover  on  account  of  confidence  sufficient  in  me  to  rely 
upon  my  judgment.  Even  the  physician  agreed  to  co-operate  with 
my  plan  out  of  respect  for  my  wishes  in  that  particular  case. 

When  he  returned  the  next  day  he  said  to  me  in  the  consulting 
room,  with  his  face  lighted  with  a  smile,  "He  is  really  better; 
your  presence  has  greatly  benefited  him."  It  was  eleven  days 
before  that  lung  cleared  up ;  his  temperature  went  down,  and  heart 
beats  became  strong  and  natural  for  his  condition,  but  he  recovered. 

The  point  that  I  wished  to  bring  out  has  been  illustrated  in  this 
case.  The  physician  who  does  not  fully  appreciate  the  psycho- 
logical factor  in  therapeutics  is  far  more  likely  to  give  an  unfavor- 
able prognosis,  and  in  many  instances  he  might  as  well  knock  his 
patient  on  the  head  with  a  sledge  hammer  as  use  psychic  influences, 
unconsciously  though  it  be,  to  retard  rather  than  promote  recovery. 

It  is  frequently  the  case  that  the  physician  comes  into  the  pres- 
ence of  a  serious  pathological  condition  so  depressed  himself  by 
his  knowledge  of  pathology  that  he  forgets  to  put  confidence  in 
the  recuperative  powers  of  his  patient,  which  can  be  encouraged 
and  stimulated  to  increase  all  physiological  processes.  This  un- 
conscious suggestive  influence  may  so  plant  fear  in  the  patient, 
accumulating  with  double  force  on  account  of  the  depressing 


PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC    VALUE   OF   SUGGESTION.  143 

environing  psychologic  influence  which  follows  as  a  logical  sequence, 
that  it  can  be  stated  as  a  scientific  truth  that  the  prognosis  fre- 
quently kills  the  patient. 

People  die  frequently  under  such  conditions  of  purely  nervous 
shock.  Shock  may  be  defined  as  being  a  complete  suspension  of 
some  and  partial  suspension  of  others  of  the  functions  of  the  nerv- 
ous system. 

Fear  alone,  an  emotion  which  is  the  result  of  the  analysis  of 
consequences,  exercises  an  inhibitory  influence  over  all  the  nervous 
functions,  both  voluntary  and  involuntary.  Every  idea  that 
originates  in  the  conscious  mind  as  the  result  of  self-analysis  of 
subjective  sensations,  symptoms,  and  conditions  reproduces  itself 
in  the  body. 

Physiologists  have  always  endowed  the  nerve  and  brain  centers 
with  a  peculiar  energy  of  their  own,  indefinitely  expressed  under 
such  terms  as  neuric  energy,  nerve  force,  vis  medicatrix  naturae, 
etc.  At  any  rate,  these  higher  centers  stand  in  a  similar  relation 
to  the  body  as  a  dynamo  stands  to  a  great  building  full  of  intricate 
and  complex  machinery.  When  properly  manipulated,  the  influx 
of  energy  goes  to  every  organ,  cell,  and  function  of  the  body,  giv- 
ing stored  up  energy  to  the  special  functions  as  occasion  requires. 

The  mental  attitude  of  the  patient  to  his  own  condition  is  the 
determining  factor  in  the  utilization  of  stored  up  reserve  psychic 
power.  The  very  belief  on  the  part  of  the  patient  in  the  possible 
serious  outcome  of  his  illness — even  when  he  is,  as  far  as  it  is  pos- 
sible for  a  human  being  to  be,  apparently  devoid  of  fear — disturbs 
and  depresses  him,  and  weakens  all  power  of  resistance. 

An  illustration  of  the  influence  of  the  conscious  mind  upon 
voluntary  functions  is  well  demonstrated  by  concentrating  the 
mind  upon  the  arm  held  at  right  angles  to  the  body  and  constantly 
iterating  the  suggestion  that  ''the  arm  is  getting  stronger  and 
stronger. ' ' 

It  is  usually  supposed  that  a  man  can  not  hold  up  his  arm  for 
more  than  five  or  ten  minutes  at  a  time.  I  once  took  a  class  of 
ten  young  ladies  between,  twenty-two  and  thirty  years  of  age,  and 
by  suggestion  each  one  was  enabled  to  hold  her  arm  at  right  angles 
to  her  body  for  one  hour.  During  this  experiment  I  held  my  own 


144  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

arm  at  right  angles,  and,  standing  in  front  of  a  circle  that  had 
been  formed,  I  requested  that  each  one  of  the  young  ladies  look 
at  the  bridge  of  my  nose  glasses,  and  positively  assured  them  that 
as  long  as  their  eyes  did  not  lose  sight  of  this  object  their  arms 
would  remain  strong. 

"Mine  is  tired,  and  I  can  not  hold  out  much  longer,"  said  one 
after  about  fifteen  minutes. 

"Then  let  me  touch  the  point  of  your  elbow,  and  it  will  be 
strong  again,"  I  quickly  replied.  Then  going  from  one  to  the 
other  who  requested  it,  I  kept  up  that  sort  of  thing  until  the  hour 
was  up. 

Each  one  of  the  young  ladies  thought  that  I  had  given  them  the 
strength  to  hold  their  arms  out  so  long.  In  a  sense  I  had  done 
so,  by  suggestions  to  their  subconscious  selves,  though  they  were 
wide  awake  and  in  no  sense  hypnotized,  as  the  term  is  ordinarily 
employed;  yet  in  reality  there  was  as  much  hypnotism  exerted  as 
if  they  had  been  in  a  state  of  active  somnambulism. 

I  have  frequently  taken  a  group  of  children,  who  have  always 
been  favorite  associates  of  mine,  and  begun  with  them  in  what 
I  was  pleased  to  call  "exercises."  I  would  begin  by  having  all 
hold  out  one  arm  in  a  prize  contest,  which  they  enjoyed  immensely. 
For  four  out  of  six  to  hold  out  an  arm  at  right  angles  to  the 
body  for  an  hour  and  a  half  after  the  third  or  fourth  day's  exer- 
cises was  nothing  unusual.  They  could  also  stand  on  one  foot  for 
more  than  an  hour — still  at  times  and  hopping  about  at  other 
times,  with  the  other  foot  in  hand,  either  in  front  of  or  behind 
them.  At  any  rate,  I  held  their  attention  and  constantly  kept  up 
a  suggestive  influence  by  addressing  my  suggestion  to  one  and  then 
another,  expressing  my  confidence  in  his  or  her  ability  to  hold  up 
an  arm  or  stand  on  one  foot  all  day  long. 

In  my  demonstrations  and  lectures  given  to  physicians  I  always 
have  had  one  or  more  physicians  present  take  a  suggestion,  with- 
out the  slightest  attempt  to  induce  sleep,  by  agreeing  to  co-operate 
with  me,  so  that  I  could  show  him  how  he  could  convey  a  sug- 
gestion to  his  own  subconscious  mind  and  get  results  that  would 
surprise  him.  In  over  five  hundred  instances  have  I  placed  phy- 
sicians submitting  to  this  experiment  across  two  chairs  and  jumped 


PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC   VALUE   OF   SUGGESTION.  145 

upon  their  bodies  with  my  entire  weight  of  two  hundred  pounds, 
and  in  nine-tenths  of  the  instances  they  would  say  that  I  had  ap- 
parently placed  no  more  than  three  or  four  pounds  upon  them. 
They  were  astonished  and  frequently  incredulous  when  I  informed 
them  that  they  had  sustained  my  weight. 

Any  one  who  believes  that  he  can  do  so,  can  easily  lie  with  head 
in  one  chair  and  heels  in  another,  and  hold  up  one  hundred  and 
fifty  or  two  hundred  pounds.  On  the  other  hand,  I  have  frequently 
witnessed  a  physician  attempt  this  where  he  did  not  believe  it 
possible  for  a  man  to  sustain  even  his  own  weight,  and  he  always 
proved  that  what  he  believed  about  it  was  correct.  It  is  simply  a 
question  of  mental  attitude. 

For  a  suggestion  to  be  assimilated  as  a  self-suggestion,  there  must 
be  confidence  that  amounts  to  a  conviction  before  it  will  reach  and 
influence  the  subconscious  realm.  The  great  realm  of  subconscious- 
ness,  which  corresponds  to  the  functionating  of  at  least  nine-tenths 
of  an  individual's  psychic  powers,  is  amenable  to  the  suggestion  of 
the  conscious  beliefs  of  the  individual.  His  mental  attitude,  if  it 
amounts  to  a  conviction,  evokes  or  calls  forth  latent  powers  or  in- 
herent psychic  activities,  and  renders  the  reserve  energy  available 
or  useless  as  he  has  confidence  or  lack  of  confidence. 

But  suggestion  without  hypnotism  is  effective  in  its  influence 
not  only  upon  the  voluntary  nervous  functions,  but  the  involun- 
tary functions  as  well.  Through  the  influence  of  suggestion  upon 
the  physiological  processes  of  the  body,  even  gross  structural 
changes  can  result. 

I  walked  up  to  a  physician  upon  one  occasion  who  was  holding 
the  hand  of  a  little  boy  in  both  of  his  own,  gently  manipulating 
his  hand.  He  was  assuring  the  little  fellow  that  those  warts  would 
go  away,  that  they  would  go  away  when  he  did  not  know  anything 
about  it,  and  in  two  months  would  be  gone,  etc. 

The  physician  had  attended  my  lecture  and  demonstration  the 
previous  evening,  and  when  I  discovered  what  he  was  doing  I  ex- 
claimed, "Using  suggestion  so  early,  Doctor?" 

"Oh,  this  is  my  own  method  of  curing  warts,"  he  replied.  "I 
enjoy  the  enviable  reputation  here  among  the  little  boys  as  being 
the  wart  cure  doctor,  and  I  have  in  numerous  cases  dispersed  them 
by  suggestion." 


146  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

A  well-known  physician  related  to  me  an  experience  of  his  in 
the  case  of  a  uterine  fibroid — yes,  a  fibroid  tumor  of  the  uterus. 
Upon  his  last  examination  before  an  intended  surgical  operation 
he  found  that  there  was  much  adhesion,  and,  rather  than  jeopardize 
the  life  of  his  patient,  he  decided  upon  a  plan  which  he  executed 
as  follows : 

''Mrs.  Blank,"  he  said,  "if  you  will  co-operate  with  me  for  one 
year,  I  feel  quite  certain  that  you  can  get  well  without  the  opera- 
tion I  intended.  It  will  all  depend  upon  your  intelligent,  per- 
sistent co-operation  and  effort.  I  wish  to  see  you  once  a  week  to 
apply  a  medicine  to  the  inside  of  your  womb  for  the  influence 
that  it  will  exert  upon  lessening  the  circulation  in  that  tumor, 
and  also  to  apply  a  tampon  to  hold  up  the  heavy  organ  so  that 
you  will  suffer  no  more  pain.  Now,  what  I  want  you  to  do,  in 
dead  earnest,  is  this :  whenever  you  think  of  your  condition  at  all, 
say  to  yourself,  '  The  blood  vessels  that  go  to  this  tumor  are  drying 
up,  shrinking  up,  getting  smaller  and  smaller,  my  womb  is  getting 
lighter  and  lighter,  and  this  tumor  is  going  away.  Every  day  and 
night  it  is  going  away. '  ' 

"Doctor  Blank,"  exclaimed  she,  "are  you  a  Christian  scientist? 
Do  you  mean  to  tell  me  that  any  such  mental  attitude  on  my  part 
could  exert  an  influence  upon  a  large,  hard  substance  like  the 
things  you  showed  me  in  those  jars?" 

"No,  madam,  I  am  not  a  Christian  scientist,"  said  he,  "but  I 
do  know  that  persistent,  intelligent  use  of  the  higher  brain  centers 
exerts  a  wonderful  influence  over  the  vasomotor  neuro  regulation 
of  the  blood  supply  to  any  part  of  the  body  upon  which  attention 
is  centered,  and  I  tell  you  frankly  that  if  you  will  do  as  I  advise 
you,  I  expect  to  avoid  the  necessity  of  this  operation." 

"Doctor  Blank,"  replied  his  patient,  earnestly,  "I  will  per- 
sistently and  constantly  do  some  of  the  finest  thinking  that  any 
person  ever  did,  all  the  time  while  I  am  awake  and  when  I  retire 
at  night.  I  will  affirm  and  iterate  that  this  tumor  is  drying  up 
and  shrinking  up,  that  the  blood  vessels  are  getting  smaller  and 
smaller,  and  that  the  tumor  is  getting  lighter  and  lighter,  and  is 
rapidly  going  away — day  and  night  it  is  going  away. ' ' 

This  physician  saw  that  patient  once  a  week  and  made  a  simple 


PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC   VALUE   OP   SUGGESTION.  147 

application  to  her  womb,  but  each  time  assured  her  that  the  con- 
gestion was  being  relieved,  that  the  blood  vessels  were  getting 
smaller,  that  her  womb  was  getting  lighter,  and  that  she  was 
progressing  nicely  in  every  way. 

He  said  that  at  the  end  of  one  year  that  woman's  tumor  was 
less  than  one-fourth  of  the  original  size.  His  patient  at  that  time 
said,  "Oh,  Doctor,  it  is  such  a  responsibility  to  have  to  keep 
forcing  that  suggestion  upon  the  involuntary  physiological  proc- 
esses all  the  time." 

"Then  dismiss  it,  madam,  just  as  I  am  going  to  dismiss  you. 
I  am  positive  that  you  will  experience  no  more  trouble  and  you 
may  think  of  yourself  as  being  a  well  woman. ' ' 

It  was  two  years  since  he  dismissed  that  patient  and  she  had 
experienced  no  more  trouble. 

While  upon  this  phase  of  the  subject,  let  me  state  here  that 
the  sexual  instinct  and  its  development  is  a  far  more  potent  factor 
in  the  production  of  neurotic  symptoms  than  is  commonly  supposed. 
Nothing  so  disturbs  the  tranquillity  of  the  average  mind  as  the 
belief  in  his  or  her  own  sexual  weakness,  though  it  is  purely  imag- 
inary. 

That  one  individual,  however,  has  a  nose  that  is  conspicuous 
for  its  enormous  convexity  and  another  for  its  concavity  does  not 
prevent  this  organ  from  performing  its  function.  So,  in  the  case 
of  the  female  uterus — which  is  probably  the  organ  that  varies  more 
than  any  other  in  position  and  size — the  fact  that  in  one  case  the 
fundus  points  to  an  angle  of  forty-five  degrees  forward  when  the 
individual  is  in  the  erect  position,  or  forty-five  degrees  backward 
in  another  individual,  is  no  ground  to  give  rise  to  a  diagnosis  of 
abnormality  or  disease. 

This  organ  is  also,  from  its  very  nature,  subject  to  a  great 
variety  of  vascular  changes,  and  when  a  patient  is  morbid  in  the 
belief  that  she  has  some  serious  uterine  affection,  with  all  the 
perverted  mental  states  that  accompany  such  a  self-consciousness, 
there  is  no  other  field  of  work  in  which  suggestion,  in  conjunction 
with  some  simple  application  or  device,  brings  such  fruitful  results. 

Get  the  confidence  of  your  patient;  let  her  know  that  you  are 
considering  her  case  from  every  point  of  view;  find  out  what  she 


148  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

believes  about  her  case,  obtaining  the  information  tactfully,  and 
then  give  her  a  scientific  analysis  of  her  case  in  your  own  language 
that  will  harmonize  with  her  own  convictions  and  her  symptoms; 
and,  in  making  a  mental  picture  to  her  as  to  what  will  be  the  out- 
come of  the  treatment,  be  sure  to  cover  every  symptom. 

In  other  words,  in  conjunction  with  your  local  treatment  be 
sure  to  give  a  suggestion  to  meet  every  indication,  letting  your 
patient  feel  that  the  treatment  will  bring  such  results.  While 
using  suggestion  in  conjunction  with  your  treatment,  do  all  you 
can  to  secure  the  intelligent  co-operation  of  your  patient. 

In  all  gynecological  cases  there  is  more  or  less  functional  and 
neuropathic  disturbance — such  as  insomnia,  nervousness,  indiges- 
tion, constipation,  despondency,  etc. — which  can  be  successfully 
combated  by  simple  suggestion  given  at  the  time  the  local  treat- 
ment is  applied.  Above  all,  send  your  patients  away  less  self- 
conscious  of  the  seriousness  of  their  illness  and  more  confident  of 
a  complete  recovery. 

A  casual  remark,  while  holding  the  attention  of  your  patient, 
that  she  will  be  easy  after  this,  will  sleep  soundly  at  night,  have 
a  better  appetite  and  feel  better  in  every  way,  is  food  stuff  for 
the  subconscious  mind  that  furnishes  memory  pictures  or  ideas 
that  will  be  reproduced  in  the  body. 

A  patient  of  mine  upon  one  occasion  had  worked  very  hard 
taking  stock  in  a  dry  goods  store  and  became  fatigued.  He  had 
not  slept  the  two  nights  previous,  though  he  had  taken  fifteen 
or  twenty  grains  of  sulphonal.  He  said  when  he  came  into  my 
presence  that  he  just  must  have  a  good  night's  sleep  or  he  could  not 
undertake  the  heavy  task  before  him  the  next  day.  After  pa- 
tiently going  into  his  case,  asking  him  in  regard  to  appetite,  elim- 
ination, digestion,  amount  of  water  taken  during  the  twenty-four 
hours,  etc.,  I  remarked,  "Well,  you  will  sleep  if  you  take  a  dose 
of  this  prescription  at  bedtime  and  follow  other  directions." 

I  advised  him  to  at  once  drink  two  glasses  of  water,  and  repeat 
this  in  two  hours  and  again  at  bedtime,  and  also  insisted  that 
he  take  a  long  walk  before  going  to  his  home,  all  of  which  I  ex- 
plained was  necessary  both  to  encourage  elimination  and  to  drive 
the  blood  away  from  an  overworked  brain. 


PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC    VALUE   OF   SUGGESTION.  149 

I  then  gave  the  following  directions:  "Now,  take  notice,  Mr. 
Blank,  if  you  are  not  willing  to  go  to  sleep  tonight,  don't  take 
this  medicine,  for  if  you  take  it  you  are  going  to  sleep.  Be  sure 
to  explain  to  your  wife  that  you  are  taking  something  to  give 
you  a  good  night's  rest  and  that  your  bedroom  must  be  kept  as 
quiet  as  possible. 

"After  preparing  for  bed,  shake  the  bottle  thoroughly  and  take 
a  tablespoonful  of  the  medicine.  Then  put  out  your  light,  get  in 
bed,  and  turn  yourself  loose"  (showing  him  how  to  relax).  "By 
slightly  breathing  through  your  mouth  you  will  take  into  your 
lungs  more  oxygen,  which  greatly  facilitates  the  action  of  this 
medicine.  In  less  than  a  minute  after  you  relax  and  breathe 
deeply  you  will  feel  your  arms  and  lower  limbs  getting  heavy, 
and  experience  a  sensation  as  if  you  are  sinking  down  in  your 
bed.  This  is  the  effect  of  the  medicine — don't  resist  it;  and  in 
less  than  three  more  minutes  you  will  be  sound  asleep,  and  sleep 
soundly  all  night  and  awake  in  the  morning  feeling  much  re- 
freshed. ' ' 

I  then  arose  and  turned  to  the  door  in  a  way  that  suggested  to 
him  to  depart. 

"See  here,  Doctor,"  said  he,  "there  is  no  danger  in  this  medi- 
cine?" 

"It  will  put  you  to  sleep,  Mr.  Blank;  but  if  you  had  a  weak 
heart,  it  would  strengthen  it  and  all  bodily  functions  will  be 
encouraged,  and  you  will  have  the  best  night's  rest  you  ever  had 
in  your  life.  Be  sure  to  remember  to  relax  when  you  get  in  bed 
and  breathe  slightly  through  your  mouth.  Come  tomorrow  and 
tell  me  how  well  you  slept. ' ' 

I  had  prescribed  15  grains  of  trional  in  thirty-two  doses  of 
carbonated  water,  less  than  yz  grain  of  the  medicine  to  the  dose, 
when  he  had  taken  15  or  20  grains  of  sulphonal  at  each  dose  the 
two  nights  previous  and  had  but  little  sleep. 

The  next  day  he  returned  and  asked  if  there  was  any  danger 
of  getting  in  the  habit  of  taking  that  medicine,  reporting  that 
he  had  slept  soundly  all  night  long,  and  stating  that  his  wife  had 
said  he  had  not  slept  so  soundly  before  in  thirty  years. 

"Some  people  are  very  susceptible  to  that  dose,  Mr.  Blank,  and 


150  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

I  see  you  are  one  of  them.     Don't  you  notice  what  a  sedative 
effect  it  has  had  upon  you?" 

"Yes,"  he  replied,  "I  feel  a  little  lazy." 

"That  is  simply  the  result  of  a  good  night's  sleep  and  the  re- 
lief that  the  medicine  has  given  to  the  nervous  element  in  your 
case.  You  will  not  need  another  dose  of  that  prescription  oftener 
than  once  a  week.  You  will  be  thirsty  and  drink  plenty  of  water 
after  this,  and  that  encourages  all  functional  activity.  You  will 
eat  more,  digest  your  food,  and  improve  in  health  in  every  way, 
but  you  must  relax  at  night  when  you  retire  and  breathe  through 
your  mouth,  for  the  increased  amount  of  oxygen  taken  into  your 
lungs  which  is  secured  in  that  way  is  very  essential  to  the  success 
of  this  treatment." 

The  fact  that  he  did  relax  and  breathe  slightly  through  his 
mouth,  with  the  idea  having  been  strongly  put  to  him  that  he 
would  go  to  sleep,  virtually  amounted  to  getting  him  to  hypnotize 
himself,  or  take  a  suggestion  both  consciously  and  subconsciously. 
In  five  weeks  he  reported  that  he  had  taken  five  doses  of  the 
placebo  prescription,  had  slept  well  all  the  while,  and  had  gained 
six  pounds  in  weight. 

Two  years  later  he  reminded  me  of  the  marked  benefit  of  that 
prescription.  "You  know  how  I  had  for  several  years  suffered 
with  indigestion,"  said  he;  "now  I  can  eat  boiled  ham,  hard 
boiled  eggs,  and  cheese  for  supper,  and  sleep  well  all  night.  I 
have  gained  thirty  pounds,  and  am  in  better  health  than  I  have 
been  in  over  thirty  years. ' ' 

I  am  personally  acquainted  with  two  physicians  who  have  for 
some  time  been  engaged  in  sanitorium  work.  One  of  these  phy- 
sicians secures  a  good  night's  rest  for  his  patient  by  directing 
the  nurse  very  seriously  in  the  presence  of  his  patient  to  give  a 
"sleeping  capsule"  (a  placebo)  at  nine  o'clock,  and,  if  his  patient 
is  not  sleeping  soundly  by  ten,  to  give  another.  "But  in  no 
event  to  give  more  than  two ;  she  will  sleep  soundly  all  night. ' ' 

"In  fifteen  years,"  said  he,  "I  do  not  remember  that  this  has 
failed  to  secure  a  good  night's  rest  in  more  than  a  half  dozen 
instances. ' ' 

The  other  physician  instructs  his  nurse  to  prepare  his  patients 


PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC   VALUE   OF   SUGGESTION.  151 

for  sleep  by  looking  after  all  possible  requirements,  making  the 
patient  conscious  that  he  is  being  prepared  to  get  a  dose  of  medi- 
cine that  will  make  him  sleep  soundly  all  night,  and  then  directs 
her  to  administer  one  drop  of  a  solution  of  potassium  bromide, 
instructing  the  patient  that  he  will  be  asleep  in  five  minutes  and 
will  sleep  soundly  all  night. 

Said  he,  "That  is  the  last  I  ever  hear  from  them.  They  sleep 
all  night." 

Hundreds  and  hundreds  of  physicians  have  reported  to  me 
that  they  secured  a  good  night's  sleep  for  their  patients  by  giving 
a  hypodermic  injection  of  pure  water. 

A  few  days  ago  I  came  into  the  presence  of  a  gentleman  suf- 
fering with  an  acute  pleuritis,  with  a  rising  temperature  and  a 
severe  pain.  He  was  walking  the  floor,  holding  a  hot  water  bag 
to  his  painful  side,  and  stated  that  he  had  been  unable  to  lie 
down  on  account  of  the  severe  pain.  I  advised  that  he  lie  down, 
relax  every  muscle,  breathe  slightly  through  his  lips,  and  stated 
that  he  would  at  once  get  ease  and  go  to  sleep. 

He  was  left  alone  and  conformed  to  the  conditions,  and  did  get 
ease  and  went  to  sleep  promptly.  I  assured  him  before  trying 
the  method  that  the  thorough  relaxation  would  allow  the  blood 
to  circulate  evenly  throughout  his  entire  body,  thus  relieving  the 
congestion  in  and  about  the  inflamed  area,  and  that  he  would  get 
ease  and  go  to  sleep.  He  intelligently  and  consciously  acted  upon 
the  suggestion  and  got  good  results. 

Upon  one  occasion  I  was  called  hurriedly  to  see  a  patient  after 
several  attempts  had  been  made  to  secure  my  services.  She  was 
a  neurotic  woman  who  was  reported  seriously  ill.  I  had  seen  that 
patient  before,  however,  and  picked  up  a  bottle  of  avena  sativa, 
a  sample  that  had  been  left  in  my  office,  and  carried  it  along 
with  me.  My  patient  was  extremely  hysterical,  almost  opistho- 
tonic,  and  shaking  convulsively ;  hands  cold,  feet  cold,  pulse  rapid, 
and  around  her  was  a  badly  frightened  family  and  friends.  As 
I  came  into  her  presence  I  expressed  a  regret  that  I  had  been  so 
long  delayed,  and,  taking  her  hand  sympathetically,  expressed  the 
hope  that  she  had  not  suffered  on  account  of  my  delay,  whereupon 
she  displayed  all  of  her  symptoms  with  exaggerated  emphasis. 


152  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

Her  husband  and  the  chief  attendant  had  their  say  in  describ- 
ing the  severity  of  the  attack,  and  related  the  special  incidents 
that  had  transpired  during  the  past  hour  or  so,  and  at  the  proper 
psychological  moment  I  said  to  her  strongly,  "Now,  be  patient, 
and  let  me  find  out  just  what  is  the  trouble." 

I  had  seen  that  patient  before,  and  my  familiarity  with  her  case 
did  not  require  any  further  light  to  correctly  interpret  her  symp- 
toms. However,  a  physician  must  sometimes  pursue  the  course 
that  will  best  secure  the  accord  of  the  patient  in  order  to  get  best 
results.  I  took  her  temperature,  counted  her  pulse,  percussed  her 
chest,  listened  to  her  respiration,  examined  her  lips  and  the  lobes 
of  her  ears,  etc.  I  then  said  to  her,  at  a  moment  when  I  had  her 
attention,  "Be  patient,  madam,  I  have  just  what  I  need  to  relieve 
you  in  a  few  minutes,"  holding  the  sample  of  avena  sativa  in  my 
hand  before  her. 

Turning  to  her  husband,  I  requested  him  to  bring  me  a  glass 
of  water,  an  empty  glass,  and  a  spoon.  While  waiting  for  this  I 
said  to  her  kindly,  "Be  patient,  you  will  soon  feel  all  right  after 
you  take  a  dose  of  medicine."  I  poured  one  spoonful  of  the 
medicine  into  the  glass,  followed  by  six  spoonfuls  of  water,  and 
stirred  it  briskly  for  at  least  nine  seconds.  Then  taking  a  spoon- 
ful of  the  mixture,  I  put  it  to  her  lips  and  told  her  to  swallow  it. 

Handing  her  husband  the  glass,  I  placed  one  hand  over  her 
eyes,  closing  them  gently,  and  requested  her  to  breathe  through 
her  mouth.  "Now,  breathe  deeply;  once  again;  now  again,  away 
down  deep;"  thus  getting  three  full  respirations.  "There,  now, 
you  are  relaxed  perfectly  all  over.  Now  lie  still  and  let  the  medi- 
cine have  its  effect,  and  in  ten  minutes  you  will  feel  all  right,  and 
be  quiet  and  easy  from  head  to  foot." 

She  lay  perfectly  still,  and  her  husband,  with  eyes  as  wide  open 
as  full  moons,  exclaimed,  "See  here,  Doctor,  that  seems  to  be  a 
very  powerful  medicine  you  are  using.  Is  there  no  danger  in 
that  dose?" 

"Just  what  she  needs,"  I  replied.  "If  her  heart  were  weak, 
that  medicine  would  strengthen  it;  her  nerves  will  become  steady, 
and  quiet,  and  strong.  Her  muscles  will  completely  relax,  her 


PSYCHO-THERAPEUTIC   VALUE  OF  SUGGESTION.  153 

hands  and  feet  get  warm  and  her  head  get  easy,  and  her  nervous 
equilibrium  will  be  completely  re-established." 

I  walked  out  of  the  room,  and  requested  that  he  follow  me  and 
leave  her  quiet  for  ten  minutes,  stating  that  she  would  be  com- 
pletely relieved  at  the  end  of  that  time,  and  that  then  we  would 
give  her  another  dose  and  she  would  go  to  sleep  and  sleep  soundly 
all  night. 

At  the  end  of  ten  minutes  we  returned  to  her  bedside.  She  lay 
as  passive  and  still  as  a  lake  without  a  ripple.  Taking  her  wrist, 
I  found  her  pulse  about  seventy  instead  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty,  as  it  was  upon  my  arrival.  "Open  your  eyes,  Mrs.  Blank; 
you  feel  good,  don 't  you  ? ' ' 

"Oh,  Doctor,  I  could  feel  the  effects  of  that  medicine  coming 
over  me  just  as  you  said  it  would.  I  never  had  anything  make 
me  feel  so  pleasant  in  all  my  life." 

"It  has  had  a  delightful  effect,  but  I  never  gave  you  a  dose  of 
medicine  that  did  not  have  a  good  effect  on  you.  You  are  one 
patient  in  whose  case  I  know  that  every  dose  will  produce  the  de- 
sired result." 

"Because  you  understand  my  case  so  well,  Doctor,"  was  her 
suave  reply. 

That  was  all  right.  Throw  bouquets  at  your  patients,  and  they 
will  throw  them  back  at  you.  Blame  them  and  find  fault  with 
them,  and  they  will  blame  you  and  find  fault  with  you. 

In  the  case  of  the  patient  just  described  I  advised  that  another 
dose  of  the  medicine  be  administered,  and  for  everything  to  be 
arranged  to  let  her  go  to  sleep,  casually  remarking  that  she  would 
sleep  soundly  all  night  and  be  feeling  all  right  in  the  morning. 
My  patient  remarked  that  she  came  near  going  to  sleep  anyway 
from  that  one  dose,  and  that  if  she  had  not  been  afraid  that  I 
would  have  left  her,  she  would  have  gone  sound  to  sleep.  I  left 
instructions  that  she  come  to  my  office  the  next  day,  and  gave  her 
a  prescription  with  several  names  that  amounted  to  nothing  on 
account  of  the  smallness  of  the  dose  of  each,  instructing  her  to 
take  a  spoonful  in  water  before  meals  and  at  bedtime,  suggesting 
to  her  that  this  would  keep  her  nervous  system  functionating  prop- 


154  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

erly;  that  it  would  make  her  sleep  soundly  at  night  and  prevent 
another  one  of  those  attacks. 

At  least  three-fourths  of  the  adult  population  of  the  world  are 
relying  upon  some  therapeutic  system  or  method.  They  are  fol- 
lowers of  some  herd,  school,  or  system  that  offers  health  in  the 
place  of  disease.  The  self-conscious  intellectual  ego  has  not  been 
sufficiently  evolved  within  them  to  enable  them  to  rely  upon  them- 
selves. What  these  people  really  need  is  education,  knowledge, 
and  guidance — other  names  for  suggestion — to  give  them  the  will 
to  dare  to  do  as  well  as  they  know  how. 

A  large  percentage  of  these  functional  and  neuropathic  condi- 
tions would  get  well  of  their  own  accord  if  the  people  were  only 
level-headed  enough  to  do  as  the  dog  does,  who  lies  down  and 
gives  nature  a  chance  to  recuperate  an  outraged  physical  consti- 
tution. 

Rest  in  a  comfortable  bed,  deep  inspiration  of  pure  air,  light, 
wholesome  diet,  copious  draughts  of  water  to  encourage  elimina- 
tion, with  unyielding  faith  in  the  powers  inherent  within  the 
biological  elements,  would  result  in  a  cure  of  a  large  proportion 
of  the  usual  ills  of  human  beings  without  a  drop  of  medicine. 

Yet,  suggestion  begets  faith,  confidence,  and  belief,  and  is  at 
the  bottom  of  Christian  science,  osteopathy,  patent  medicine  cures, 
electrotherapeutic  quackery,  magnetic  healing,  divine  healing, 
mental  science,  metaphysical  healing,  faith  cures,  and  such  like. 
These  people  are  here,  and  their  methods  are  applicable  to  a  large 
class  of  functional  and  neuropathic  conditions.  They  are  alert 
and  active,  and  here  to  stay  as  long  as  time  lasts,  under  some  name 
or  guise,  to  make  use  of  this  psychological  method  of  treatment. 

We,  as  a  profession,  should  not  lay  aside  one  single  therapeutic 
measure  or  device,  but,  in  addition  to  our  ordinary  therapeutic 
measures  in  all  classes  of  diseases  and  conditions,  we  have  an  op- 
portunity to  give  our  patients  the  benefit  of  this  most  powerful 
therapeutic  adjunct.  Honestly  and  earnestly  convince  thinking 
people  of  the  utility  of  any  good  thing,  and  they  will  indorse  it 
and  give  you  their  hearty  co-operation,  it  matters  not  how  strong 
their  prejudices  may  have  been. 

Physicians  frequently  make  a  serious  mistake  by  discouraging 


PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC    VALUE   OF   SUGGESTION.  155 

their  patients  with  an  unfavorable  prognosis  instead  of  relying 
with  more  confidence  upon  the  psychic  element,  which  would 
furnish  them  a  rational  basis  for  a  more  hopeful  result. 

There  are  many  fatalities  occurring  daily  all  over  our  country 
for  the  lack  of  men  with  faith  in  this  psychological  law,  and  with 
courage  and  moral  stamina  to  stand  out  against  the  popular  preju- 
dice to  it,  and  apply  it  as  a  therapeutic  aid. 

A  number  of  times  in  my  life  has  it  been  my  unpleasant  duty, 
yet  high  privilege,  to  have  an  opportunity  to  stand  by  a  patient, 
in  the  face  of  a  positively  unfavorable  prognosis  made  by  those 
who  did  not  appreciate  the  great  power  of  suggestion  upon  the 
subconscious,  and  tell  him,  "You  are  going  to  get  well."  I  have 
had  such  patients  squeeze  my  hand  as  I  held  theirs  and  say,  "If 
you  stand  by  me,  Doctor,  I  will  get  well." 

All  classes  of  illness,  sickness,  or  disease,  in  conjunction  with 
other  methods  of  treatment,  need  moral  or  psychological  support. 
They  need  leadership.  We  need  men  in  the  profession  to  do  as 
Napoleon  did  when  his  men  were  dying  by  hundreds  each  day  on 
his  march  in  the  East.  He  visited  the  camp,  and  took  each  one 
by  the  hand  and  assured  him  strongly  and  positively  that,  if  he 
would  be  brave,  he  would  get  well.  Just  as  this  one  visit  of  his 
to  the  sick  and  discouraged  soldiers  put  an  end  to  an  epidemic 
where  several  hundred  men  were  dying  each  day,  so  would  many 
human  lives  be  saved  by  this  simple  suggestion,  given  with  confi- 
dence and  with  conviction  in  conjunction  with  other  therapeutic 
measures. 

The  medical  profession  has  been  looking  too  long  at  the  surface 
of  things.  We  have  dealt  too  much  with  externals,  with  effects, 
and  have  neglected  causes. 

There  are  three-fourths  of  the  human  race  who  need  arousing 
and  being  shocked  into  a  self -consciousness  of  strength  and  ability, 
confidence  and  determination;  not  only  in  facing  the  questions  of 
health  and  disease,  but  in  all  other  problems  of  life.  The  man 
who  gives  such  patients  some  of  his  own  optimistic  personality  is 
giving  them  strength  and  life  itself.  They  convert  countless  mil- 
lions and  millions  of  brain  centers,  lying  dormant  and  unused,  into 
action  to  encourage  every  bodily  cell  to  increased  function. 


156  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

The  trouble  is  that  the  majority  of  people  have  not  sufficient 
confidence  within  themselves.  They  do  not  recognize  their  power, 
and  have  no  confidence  in  the  latent  potentialities  dormant  and 
unused  within  them,  that  can  be  called  into  action  only  through 
faith  and  confidence.  A  new  self-consciousness  needs  to  be  awak- 
ened within  them.  The  great  majority  of  people  are  incapable  of 
thinking  and  reasoning  for  themselves.  Their  minds,  through 
education  and  experience,  have  not  had  the  foodstuffs  to  enable 
them  to  exercise  reason.  They  are  governed  by  fear  and  ruled 
by  emotion.  Others  go  through  life  in  a  listless,  dreamlike  mental 
condition,  referred  to  by  Jastrow  as  mental  loafing. 

The  will  is  capable  of  reproducing  those  impressions  made  upon 
the  brain  only  through  experience  and  education.  Whatever  idea 
is  uppermost  in  their  minds,  whatever  impression  is  the  strongest, 
is  the  one  that  most  influences  them. 

The  physician  who  is  so  engrossed  in  the  pathology  of  the  case 
that  at  each  visit  he  recites  it  over  and  over  again  to  his  patient, 
assists  in  encouraging  not  the  patient,  but  the  disease.  He  fastens 
the  morbid  psychoneurotic  element  of  the  patient  stronger  upon 
him,  and  thus  intensifies  his  disease  by  lessening  his  resisting 
powers. 

People  are  hypnotized  by  their  beliefs.  Belief  in  an  idea  or 
a  theory,  or  a  creed  or  a  drug,  or  a  man  or  a  woman,  is  the  place 
where  the  individual  relinquishes  self-responsibility,  takes  mental 
refuge,  and  agrees  to  act  upon  the  idea  or  series  of  ideas  that  are 
presented  to  him  either  consciously  or  subconsciously.  It  is  all 
a  matter  of  getting  the  confidence  of  people  and  making  suggestions. 

"Keep  off  the  grass,  keep  off  the  grass,"  is  a  sign  that  one  sees 
everywhere  in  the  study  and  application  of  this  subject.  It  is 
before  the  door  of  the  prevailing  educational  systems.  Political 
and  economic  problems,  religious  and  therapeutic  creeds,  orthodox 
and  heterodox  alike,  all  mold  and  shape  the  actions  of  men  by 
the  use  of  suggestion  in  disguised  form.  How  sensitive  people 
are  when  we  tell  them  the  truth. 

Three  years  ago,  in  one  of  our  northern  cities,  a  gentleman  in- 
vited me  to  attend  what  he  called  a  remarkable  hypnotic  exhibi- 
tion. It  was  the  last  service  of  a  ten-day  religious  revival  meeting 


PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC   VALUE   OP   SUGGESTION.  157 

in  a  tent  with  a  capacity  for  fully  five  thousand  people.  The  last 
song  had  been  sung  and  the  last  prayer  offered  before  the  speaker 
appeared  upon  the  platform.  He  walked  up  and  down  before  his 
audience  as  if  heaven  and  hell,  life  and  death,  time  and  eternity 
were  all  on  his  shoulders.  He  then  struck  a  pose,  by  the  side  of 
his  little  stand,  that  itself  filled  his  audience,  who  were  already 
under  the  influence  of  his  suggestions,  with  expectant  awe  and 
fear.  With  all  the  intensity  of  a  tragedian  he  then  began: 
"There  are  people  under  the  sound  of  my  voice  here  tonight  that 
before  this  hour  is  over  will  have  made  a  record  for  hell  or 
heaven!  There  are  people  under  the  sound  of  my  voice  that 
before  another  year  has  rolled  around  will  have  approached  the 
judgment  bar  of  God!"  One  strong  expression  after  another  of 
this  kind  followed,  and  in  less  than  three  minutes  a  little  woman 
with  an  unstable,  nervous  organization  near  me  dropped  upon  her 
knees  with  the  cry,  ' '  Lord,  help ;  0  Lord,  save  the  people ! ' '  etc. 

On  and  on  went  the  suggester,  the  pulpit  orator,  the  speaker, 
the  hypnotist,  and  one  after  another  followed  the  example  of  the 
little  woman  until  within  twenty  minutes  pandemonium  reigned. 
The  whole  tent  reverberated  the  echoes  of  crying,  shouting,  and 
praying. 

I  walked  up  close  to  the  leader  and  noted  that  he  went  from 
one  to  another  and  suggested  what  the  Lord  would  do  and  what 
the  penitent  must  do.  To  one  he  suggested,  "Just  get  up  and 
say,  'Glory,  hallelujah;  it's  all  right.'  '  For  at  least  forty  times 
the  poor  fellow  jumped  up,  and  clapped  his  hands  and  exclaimed, 
"Glory,  hallelujah;  it's  all  right!"  Dozens  of  others  were  play- 
ing their  stunts  in  different  ways. 

This  was  in  one  of  the  most  enlightened  and  cultured  states  in 
our  great  union,  and  this  was  a  tame  affair  compared  with  some 
experiences  of  the  writer  in  his  own  former  southern  state,  both 
among  whites  and  negroes. 

Any  method  of  getting  an  individual  to  act  upon  an  idea  or 
a  series  of  ideas,  be  they  true  or  false,  either  consciously  or  sub- 
consciously, is  hypnotism  or  suggestion.  Suggestion,  then,  is  a 
basis  of  all  religions,  creeds,  dogmas,  nonmedical  and  nonsurgical 
therapeutic  systems,  and  all  methods  of  education. 


158  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

Suggestion  is  used  tfoth  for  the  good  and  for  the  harm  of  hu- 
man beings.  It  is  used  by  everybody,  and  the  really  dangerous 
man  or  woman  is  the  individual  who  is  unconscious  of  its  potency 
as  a  factor  in  both  sanity  and  insanity,  happiness  or  unhappiness, 
education  or  ignorance,  truth  or  falsehood,  health  or  disease,  char- 
acter building  or  moral  perversion. 

We  frequently  see  fanatics  upon  various  lines  swaying  and 
leading  men  and  women  into  all  kinds  of  incongruous  paths  and 
actions  by  their  fanatical  zeal,  enthusiasm,  and  absurd  devotion 
to  some  false  theory  or  concept.  The  only  protection  for  the  in- 
dividual is  knowledge  and  experience,  education  and  light,  and 
the  ability  to  think  for  and  protect  himself. 

No  special  tact  is  required  by  a  physician  to  use  suggestion  to 
fix  the  attention  of  his  patient  on  such  ideas  as  are  desirable 
to  influence  his  life  and  conduct  for  therapeutic  purposes.  The 
great  thing  to  be  desired  is  to  have  more  regard  for  the  welfare 
of  your  patient  than  for  the  remuneration  for  your  services. 

We  find  everywhere  pseudo-conscientious  men  in  the  medical 
profession  who  "have  too  high  a  regard  for  the  truth"  to  use 
suggestion  in  a  legitimate  therapeutic  manner  for  the  helpful- 
ness of  their  patients.  Such  men  usually  fasten  a  trivial  functional 
disorder  by  the  injudicious  use  of  suggestion  upon  the  conscious- 
ness of  a  patient,  and  make  it  a  serious  psychoneurotic  condition 
by  giving  his  disease  a  name  and  pointing  out  its  serious  pathol- 
ogy and  consequences,  simply  giving  a  prescription  to  relieve  a 
condition  which  he  has  made  in  reality  ten  times  worse. 

A  North  Carolina  physician  had  a  patient  who  was  morbidly 
self-conscious  of  some  functional  disturbance,  and,  after  going  to 
leading  men  in  several  of  the  larger  southern  cities,  he  finally 
landed  in  Baltimore,  where  he  secured  an  audience  with  one  of 
the  most  widely  known  physicians  in  the  history  of  the  medical 
profession.  The  patient  related  his  difficulty  in  getting  relief, 
and  told  how  he  had  gone  from  place  to  place,  and  how  the  phy- 
sicians did  not  agree,  and  how  some  called  his  disease  one  thing 
and  some  another.  The  physician  stripped  him,  gave  him  a  care- 
ful examination  for  two  or  three  minutes,  and  said,  ' '  All  right,  sir ; 
put  on  your  clothes." 


PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC    VALUE   OP   SUGGESTION.  159 

He  seated  himself  to  write  a  letter,  and  by  the  time  his  patient 
was  dressed  he  said,  "Give  me  twenty  dollars,  please,"  which 
was  promptly  handed  over  to  him.  Then,  with  one  hand  on  his 
doorknob  and  the  other  on  the  patient's  shoulder,  he  looked  him 
squarely  in  the  face  and  said  to  him,  "My  friend,  go  home  and 
read  only  the  book  of  St.  James,  call  yourself  a  -  -  fool,  and  let 
doctors  alone." 

The  door  was  opened,  and  the  man  was  out  of  the  physician's 
office  before  he  realized  jt,  another  patient  having  gone  into  the 
consulting  room.  The  gentleman  reminded  the  office  attendant 
that  the  doctor  had  forgotten  to  give  him  a  prescription,  and  he 
was  informed  that  he  must  now  wait  until  all  present  had  gone 
in  before  he  could  have  another  audience. 

Over  and  over  did  he  revolve  that  advice,  "My  friend,  go  home 
and  read  only  the  book  of  St.  James,  call  yourself  a  -  -  fool,  and 
let  doctors  alone."  The  gentleman  grew  too  nervous  to  sit  still, 
and  decided  to  take  a  walk  and  return  an  hour  later,  but,  while 
walking  alone  on  the  streets  of  Baltimore,  blind  and  deaf  to  every- 
thing that  he  saw  and  heard,  the  meaning  of  that  advice  at  last 
dawned  upon  his  consciousness  and  he  began  to  laugh. 

He  then  decided  it  would  not  be  necessary  to  return  to  the 
physician's  office,  and  he  took  the  next  train  for  his  home,  all  the 
while  remembering  that  his  family  physician  had  told  him  that 
his  disease  was  more  "in  his  head"  than  otherwise.  The  mean- 
ing of  the  advice  given  by  his  family  physician  was  now  clear 
to  him,  and  he  realized  for  the  first  time  that  he  did  not  have  a 
brain  disease,  and  that  what  the  eminent  physician  really  meant 
was  that  his  condition  was  the  result  of  an  unbridled  imagination, 
or,  to  speak  in  modern  psychological  phraseology,  due  to  a  morbid 
self-consciousness. 

He  reached  his  home  with  his  head  up,  wearing  a  smile  like  a 
headlight  on  a  steam  engine,  and,  though  three  years  had  elapsed, 
the  gentleman  yet  laughed  at  how  easily  he  had  been  cured  by 
finding  a  man  with  courage  and  honesty  sufficient  to  tell  him  that 
he  had  been  acting  a  -  -  fool  and  should  let  doctors  alone.  No 
doubt  he  was  also  instructed  to  quit  reading  patent  medicine  ad- 
vertisements and  modern  mind  cure  theories. 


160  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

Now,  that  is  just  the  point.  People  so  often  need  advice,  assur- 
ance, ideas,  persuasion,  or  shocking — other  names  for  suggestion 
— and  not  medicine  or  instruction  in  the  pathology  of  their  dis- 
ease. The  fact  that  a  patient  comes  to  you  is  ordinarily  an  ac- 
knowledgment that  he  is  willing  to  take  your  advice,  that  he  has 
confidence  in  you,  and  is  willing  to  rely  on  your  judgment. 

Here  I  would  add  a  word  of  caution.  It  is  a  great  mistake  to 
tell  a  patient  that  you  can  find  nothing  the  matter  with  him — 
almost  as  bad  as  to  exaggerate  the  seriousness  of  his  symptoms. 
An  individual  with  a  functional  disorder  may  not  necessarily  be 
suffering  with  insomnia,  or  have  sustained  a  loss  in  weight,  and 
yet  be  in  the  incipiency  of  a  disease  which,  if  not  properly  treated, 
may  result  in  serious  disorders  of  metabolism.  He  conies  to  you 
with  subjective  sensations,  feelings,  and  impressions  which  annoy 
and  depress  him.  He  feels  incapacitated  for  his  work.  Every 
problem  of  life  is  colored  by  the  hue  of  his  morbid  subjective 
state,  and  when  you  tell  him  that  you  can  find  no  cause  for  his 
trouble  you  only  add  to  his  morbidness  and  aggravate  what  may 
be  the  incipiency  of  a  grave  disorder.  A  good  proportion  of  the 
more  serious  nervous  and  mental  diseases  begins  in  functional  dis- 
turbances. The  disorders  of  metabolism  resulting  in  metabolic 
toxemia  may  begin  in  this  way.  These  patients  should  be  made 
to  feel  that  they  have  your  confidence  and  sympathy,  as  well  as 
the  benefit  of  your  knowledge  and  skill  as  a  physician.  Then  you 
are  in  position  to  tactfully  govern  their  habits  of  thought  and 
conduct,  and  to  help  them  to  execute  a  plan  of  treatment  that  will 
bring  about  recovery. 

Elimination  is  usually  deficient,  and  the  treatment  needed  in 
such  cases  tests  the  complete  resources  of  the  physician  and  em- 
bodies all  therapeutic  measures — medicinal,  dietetic,  physiological, 
and  mechanical — as  well  as  psychotherapeutic. 

Frequently,  work  under  the  proper  conditions  is  the  only  means 
of  cure,  and  the  far-reaching  influence  of  the  physician  to  secure 
the  conditions  necessary  for  the  recovery  of  his  patient  is  not  out 
of  place. 

The  proper  treatment  of  disease  is  as  varied  in  its  application 
as  are  the  wants  and  necessities  of  mankind. 


PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC   VALUE   OF   SUGGESTION.  161 

Illustration. — A  physician  of  my  acquaintance  was  called  to  see 
a  frail  little  woman  who  was  the  only  support  of  her  two  father- 
less children.  Day  and  night  she  labored  with  needle  and  thread, 
vainly  striving  to  buy  food  and  clothing,  pay  rent,  and  provide 
for  other  life  essentials.  Deprived  of  fresh  air  and  sunshine,  and 
under  constant  mental  and  physical  strain,  she  finally  succumbed, 
with  all  bodily  functions  disturbed,  and  discouraged  and  depressed 
in  the  extreme. 

The  representative  of  a  local  church  organization  stated  to  the 
physician  that  they  had  provided  a  nurse,  arranged  for  her  medi- 
cine, and  would  send  her  nicely  prepared  meals  and  visit  her  often. 

"All  that  will  only  add  to  the  severity  of  her  psychoneurotic 
condition,"  said  he;  "go  and  get  her  twenty-five  dollars  to  pay 
her  house  rent,  fill  her  pantry  with  substantial  food  to  meet  present 
demands,  but,  above  all,  secure  her  a  position  where  she  can  work 
and  get  exercise,  and  sunshine  and  fresh  air,  and  have  time  to  sleep 
at  night,  and  she  will  need  no  medicine,  no  nursing,  or  visitors." 

The  representative  of  the  charitable  organization  left,  saying 
that  she  would  have  the  society  consider  the  matter  at  their  next 
meeting  a  week  hence. 

There  was  present  at  that  interview  between  the  physician  and 
the  representative  of  the  local  organization  a  stenographer  who 
was  the  widow  of  a  poor  young  physician  who  had  died,  leaving 
her  with  no  means  of  support,  but  before  her  marriage  she  had 
learned  to  "do  things  with  her  hands,"  and  she  was  independent 
and  happy.  She  requested  the  physician  to  meet  her  on  the  out- 
side of  the  sick  lady's  room  at  seven  o'clock  that  evening,  at  which 
time  she  delivered  to  him  the  amount  of  cash  requested,  and  had 
unloaded  the  substantiate  for  a  well-filled  pantry,  and  announced 
that  she  had  secured  a  position  for  the  sick  lady  in  question,  all 
of  which  she  had  done  quietly  and  unostentatiously  during  the  day, 
requesting  that  the  part  which  she  had  played  in  the  matter  never 
be  disclosed  to  the  patient. 

Within  a  few  days  that  frail  little  woman  was  at  her  post  of 
duty,  and  up  to  four  years  afterward  she  was  at  work,  much  im- 
proved in  health  and  strength,  contented  and  happy. 


CHAPTER  IX. 
HYPNOTISM  THERAPEUTICALLY  APPLIED. 

In  the  consideration  of  any  therapeutic  measure,  the  first 
thought  that  conies  to  the  mind  of  the  wide-awake  physician  is, 
what  is  its  advantage  over  any  other  method  of  treatment? 

The  answer  to  that  question  is  easy:  its  addition  to  other  thera- 
peutic measures  enables  the  physician  to  get  results  in  a  very  large 
proportion  of  cases  that  come  under  our  observation  that  can  not 
be  secured  through  any  other  agency.  The  value  of  any  thera- 
peutic adjunct  is  in  direct  ratio  to  the  successful  results  that 
accrue  from  its  administration.  Yet,  it  must  be  remembered  that 
what  are  possibilities  with  any  method  or  kind  of  treatment — 
medicinal,  surgical,  suggestive,  or  otherwise — are  not  always  ac- 
tualities in  the  hands  of  all  men  alike,  and  it  depends  upon  the 
individual,  and  upon  him  alone  rests  the  responsibility  for  what 
he  is  not  able  to  accomplish  when  he  is  really  put  to  the  test  at 
the  bedside,  and  this  often  seriously  disturbs  our  conscience  and 
humbles  our  pride. 

Any  physician  who  expects  to  use  suggestive  therapeutics  suc- 
cessfully must  by  practice  acquire  that  confidence  in  his  own 
ability  to  succeed  with  it  by  familiarizing  himself  with  all  the 
facts,  and  theories,  and  details  of  his  subject.  Yet,  I  have  often 
noticed  an  individual  who  possessed  that  inexplicable  quality  of 
personality  to  get  others  to  do  anything  he  wanted  them  to  do, 
who  had  never  read  a  line  in  psychology  or  suggestion,  and  was 
absolutely  unfamiliar  with  the  principles  of  medical  science. 

Hypnotism  is  a  self-induced  psychological  condition.  You  do 
not  hypnotize  an  individual— you  simply  get  him  to  do  it  himself ; 
but  to  get  any  one  to  act  upon  an  idea  or  a  series  of  ideas,  either 
consciously  or  subconsciously,  one  must  be  in  dead  earnest,  exer- 
cise a  little  enthusiasm  about  the  undertaking,  and  go  at  it  with 
the  will  to  succeed. 

162 


HYPNOTISM    THERAPEUTIC  ALLY   APPLIED.  163 

The  greatest  essential  to  the  application  of  suggestive  thera- 
peutics is  a  conviction  on  the  part  of  the  operator  of  the  value  of 
the  treatment  as  applied  to  the  case  at  hand  and  a  desire  to-  bring 
about  the  recovery  of  the  patient.  In  fact,  this  is  the  important 
essential  which  is  the  sine  qua  non  to  the  success  of  any  kind  of 
treatment.  Yet,  if  suggestion  be  of  value  at  all,  it  is  of  use  just  in 
proportion  that  the  individual  accepts  and  carries  out  the  sug- 
gestion, both  consciously  and  subconsciously.  Hypnotism  is  but 
the  art,  or  technic,  or  method  of  instructing  an  individual  to  act 
upon  a  suggestion  or  a  series  of  suggestions.  There  must  always 
be  a  conscious  acquiescence,  consent,  or  co-operation  on  the  part  of 
the  individual,  not  necessarily  to  be  hypnotized,  but  to  take  the 
suggestion,  which  is  the  same  thing.  Then,  by  suggestion  there  is 
induced  in  the  patient  a  new  consciousness  whereby  he  is  led  to 
do  that  which  he  had  previously  been  unable  to  do  for  himself 
both  consciously  and  subconsciously. 

In  a  preceding  chapter  I  spoke  of  using  suggestion  to  inhibit 
the  conscious  mind,  as  was  hypothetically  supposed  to  be  accom- 
plished in  the  hypnotic  state.  It  would  have  been  more  correct 
to  state  that  we  simply  get  the  patient  to  be  passive  and  allow  the 
operator  to  induce  a  new  consciousness,  and  then  to  direct  the 
stream  of  consciousness  which  produces  mental  states  that  react 
upon  every  bodily  function.  ) 

We  get  our  patient  to  let  us  direct  and  control  his  psychic  ac- 
tivities, and  teach  and  illustrate  for  him  how  he  can  direct  and 
control  them  for  himself.  We  put  our  patient  better  in  control 
of  himself,  all  dependent  upon  the  suggestions  or  sense  impressions 
that  are  transmitted  to  his  brain  cells  through  the  senses  while 
in  this  passive  or  suggestible  condition. 

Sense  impression  is  the  starting  point  for  every  psychic  action. 
Every  sense  impression  that  is  produced  by  suggestion  or  other- 
wise has  a  determined  localization  in  the  brain  cortex. 

It  is  assumed  by  psychologists  that  every  sense  impressiqn,  ac- 
cording to  its  degree  of  strength,  produces  a  molecular  change  in 
the  nerve  cells  influenced,  which  gives  rise  to  the  possibility  of  a 
reproduction  of  these  ideas  or  sense  impressions  by  an  internal 
process. 


164  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

Memory  is  the  result  of  sense  impressions  that  previous  experi- 
ences in  life  have  left  upon  the  brain  cells.  The  very  ideas  or 
products  of  thought  which  are  impressed  upon  the  brain  cells  by 
suggestion  in  the  hypnotic  state,  as  well  as  by  suggestion  without 
hypnotism,  have  the  power  of  being  reproduced  in  mental  states, 
which  gives  rise  to  a  new  consciousness  in  the  individual. 

By  suggestion  in  the  hypnotic  state  we  are  better  enabled  to 
plant  sense  impressions,  ideas,  thoughts,  and  feelings,  which  re- 
produce themselves  in  the  consciousness  of  the  individual  and 
furnish  a  foundation  for  his  intellectual  activities. 

In  this  suggestible  condition  we  are  enabled  to  drive  back  cer- 
tain sense  impressions  that  create  unpleasant  mental  states,  ob- 
literate them  and  wipe  them  out,  and,  by  holding  the  subject's 
attention  to  certain  ideas  presented  to  him,  we  create  a  new  con- 
sciousness or  alter  his  frame  of  mind.  We  render  the  individual 
more  self-conscious  of  potentialities,  dormant  and  unused  within 
him,  which  he  can  call  into  operation  through  the  combined  effort 
of  memory  and  will,  in  contrast  to  previous  conceptions  of  his 
own  personality.  This  new  conception  of  himself  and  his  rela- 
tion to  the  outer  world  contributes  to  strengthen  and  develop  the 
self-conscious  ego.  It  is  in  reality  the  development  of  the  ego. 

By  suggestion  in  the  hypnotic  state  we  give  impulse  to  repro- 
duce previous  sense  impressions.  Call  it  strengthening  memory, 
or  will,  or  character,  or  ego,  as  you  choose,  and  the  mental  process 
which  brings  about  the  logical  connection  of  sense  perceptions  or 
ideas  reproduced  in  this  way  is  what  is  called  thinking. 

So,  then,  by  suggestion  in  the  hypnotic  state  we  create  new 
thought  habits,  mental  states,  or  streams  of  consciousness,  which 
react  upon  every  bodily  function.  We  alter  the  individual's 
thinking. 

The  following  cases  will  illustrate  the  position  taken  by  the 
author  as  to  the  value  of  suggestion  in  that  condition  of  induced 
passivity  or  receptivity  to  suggestion  commonly  referred  to  as  the 
hypnotic  state.  Whether  the  individual  is  asleep  or  not  does  not 
concern  us  here.  It  suffices  if  we  have  the  confidence  and  co- 
operation of  the  patient. 

The  results  obtained  by  hypnotic  suggestion  in  the  following 


HYPNOTISM   THERAPEUTICALLY   APPLIED.  165 

cases   speak   for   themselves.     I   shall   cite   only   enough   cases  to 
illustrate  the  position  taken  by  the  author  in  the  preceding  pages. 


INSOMNIA. 

Loss  of  Sleep. — This  is  a  condition  that  leads  to  general  physical 
disease.  It  has  innumerable  causes,  all  of  which  should  be  con- 
sidered and  treated  according  to  indications,  which  calls  into  ex- 
ercise the  complete  resources  of  the  physician.  It  more  or  less 
accompanies  all  diseased  conditions,  acute  or  chronic,  functional 
or  organic,  surgical  and  otherwise. 

It  is  useless  to  attempt  to  break  up  the  habits  of  a  nervous, 
wakeful  person  by  suggestion  when  the  individual  lives  in  open 
violation  of  all  the  known  laws  of  health,  or  where  the  system  is 
overloaded  with  toxic  products  due  to  indigestion,  caused  by  over- 
eating, with  fermentation,  deficient  elimination,  etc. 

Meet  every  indication  in  the  individual  case  at  hand,  and,  in 
conjunction  with  other  sane,  sensible,  rational  advice  or  sugges- 
tion, hypnotic  suggestion  will  prove  indispensable  in  many  cases. 

Make  it  a  rule  to  regulate  your  patient's  diet,  his  drinking,  and 
his  habits  as  well  as  his  thinking.  The  question  of  food  and  drink 
habits,  etc.,  will  be  briefly  considered  in  a  separate  chapter. 

There  are,  however,  numerous  individuals  among  all  classes  upon 
whom  the  cares  of  life  have  borne  heavily,  who,  try  as  they  will, 
with  their  imperfect  knowledge  of  self-control  and  lack  of  self- 
reliance,  can  not  keep  back  subjective  impressions  which  crowd 
themselves  upon  their  consciousness  when  they  retire  for  sleep, 
and  the  darkness  renders  them  more  conscious  of  their  trials. 

Many  there  are  who  are  still  waiting  for  special  divine  inter- 
vention to  satisfy  them  that  their  souls  are  saved.  Doubt  hovers 
over  them  and  disturbs  their  peace  of  mind.  Others  have  not 
learned  the  beauty,  and  glory,  and  salutary  effects  of  work  and 
useful  employment  as  a  means  of  strengthening  and  developing 
both  mind  and  body. 

An  unoccupied,  idle  brain  is  the  reflector  of  a  morbid  imagi- 
nation, upon  which  flit  and  dance  all  kinds  of  annoying  mental 


166  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

pictures,  to  the  discomfort  of  the  individual  who  fain  would  find 
relief  in  sleep. 

In  rare  instances  an  overexpenditure  of  nerve  energy,  through 
work,  or  worry,  or  dissipation,  prevents  the  individual  from  pos- 
sessing that  inherent  quality  of  nerve  force  sufficient  to  exercise 
self-control.  Uncontrolled  emotions,  in  the  form  of  sentiments 
both  selfish  and  altruistic,  also  contribute  their  influence  to  keep 
awake  the  restless  neurotic. 

An  irritable  nervous  system,  either  hereditary  or  acquired,  is 
transmitting  constantly  afferent  and  efferent  impulses  to  and  from 
the  brain,  and  throughout  the  entire  human  frame  subjective  sense 
perceptions  are  interpreted  by  the  individual  as  nervousness,  sick- 
ness, pain,  disease,  etc. 

Nutrition  is  disturbed,  and  toxins  of  metabolism — or,  more 
properly,  catabolism — are  being  manufactured  to  interfere  with  all 
bodily  functions  and  render  the  sufferer  miserable. 

TREATMENT. 

In  conjunction  with  dietetic,  medicinal,  and  hygienic  treatment, 
suggestion  in  the  hypnotic  state  should  be  used  if  necessary. 

Get  your  patient  to  relax  every  muscle,  and  breathe  deeply  and 
rhythmically  for  several  times  in  succession,  and  then  with  one 
or  two  drops  of  chloroform  or  any  other  placebo — or  without  them, 
as  you  choose — tell  him  that  you  are  "going  to  put  him  to  sleep; 
that,  as  you  apply  this  remedy,  he  will  get  quiet  all  over,  get 
drowsy  and  sleepy,  and  go  to  sleep,  and  awake  feeling  better. ' ' 

Then,  to  hypnotize  him,  make  suggestions  as  advised  in  the 
chapter  on  the  technic  of  inducing  the  hypnotic  state.  After  he 
is  hypnotized,  while  you  sit  beside  the  unfortunate  whose  nervous 
system  you  have  soothed  into  quietude  and  passivity,  talk  to  him, 
using  suggestions  somewhat  like  these : 

"You  are  resting  quietly,  sleeping  soundly,  breathing  deeply, 
perfectly  relaxed  and  passive  all  over.  Now,  as  you  lie  in  this 
passive  state,  with  all  tension  relieved,  while  I  am  talking  to  you, 
you  feel  your  nerves  getting  steady,  and  quiet,  and  strong.  All 
nervousness  is  going  away,  and  by  the  time  I  count  ten  your  nerves 


HYPNOTISM    THERAPEUTICALLY   APPLIED.  167 

will  be  quiet,  and  steady,  and  strong  all  over;  your  nervous  equi- 
librium will  be  completely  re-established  from  head  to  foot.  One, 
two,  three,  four,  five,  six,  seven,  eight,  nine,  ten;  your  nerves  are 
steady,  and  quiet,  and  strong  all  over. 

"Now,  after  this  treatment,  whenever  you  think  of  yourself, 
you  will  find  that  your  nerves  are  steady,  and  quiet,  and  strong. 

"At  bedtime  you  will  relax,  close  your  eyes,  and  think  only  of 
sleep.  You  will  go  to  sleep,  and  sleep  soundly  all  night  long 
You  will  awake  in  the  morning  feeling  refreshed  and  rested. 

"After  this  you  will  be  thirsty,  and  drink  more  water  than  ever 
before  in  your  life.  Every  two  hours  from  morning  until  you 
retire  at  night  you  will  drink  a  glass  of  water.  The  increased 
amount  of  fluid  will  cause  an  increased  action  of  all  your  bodily 
functions.  Your  skin  and  kidneys,  liver  and  bowels,  will  elimi- 
nate more  freely. 

"You  will  be  easy  and  comfortable  all  over.  You  will  enjoy 
eating,  and  work,  and  exercise,  and  gain  in  weight,  and  be  happier, 
feel* stronger,  and  be  glad  that  you  are  living." 

I  then  awake  the  patient,  and  give  him  conscious  advice  how 
to  eat,  how  to  drink,  how  to  exercise,  and  how  to  relax  so  that  he 
can  go  to  sleep.  I  give  him  a  reason  for  all  the  advice  that  I  have 
given,  as  well  as  a  reason  for  the  suggestion  given  him  in  that 
induced  condition  of  passivity. 

I  am  often  asked,  "Do  you  mean  to  say  that  the  suggestions 
will  be  effective  just  because  they  are  made  to  the  patient  who 
is  hypnotized?"  I  say  we  make  sense  impressions  on  the  brain 
cortex  while  the  patient  is  in  the  hypnotic  condition,  that  are 
reproduced  in  the  individual's  thought  habits.  The  reproductions 
of  these  ideas  are  autosuggestions.  When  you  substitute  helpful 
autosuggestions  for  adverse  and  harmful  autosuggestions,  you  have 
been  of  the  greatest  help  that  one  human  being  can  be  to  another. 
You  have  put  your  patient  in  control  of  himself.  You  have 
changed  his  habits  of  thinking,  and  by  this  means  new  habits  of 
thought  and  action  in  every-day  life  are  formed.  You  have  put 
your  patient  better  in  possession  of  himself,  and  better  enabled 
him  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  every-day  life. 


168  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

ILLUSTRATION  1, 

Syphiliphobia,  Insomnia,  Neurasthenia,  Etc. — Mr.  Blank,  a 
farmer,  who  had  led  an  honorable,  upright  life,  had  by  his  indis- 
cretion contracted  a  gonorrhea  and  a  chancroid.  The  chancroid 
readily  healed,  but  the  gonorrhea  persisted  for  several  weeks.  He 
believed  that  he  had  syphilis,  was  tortured  by  a  hypersensitive 
conscience,  and  for  several  months  had  been  confined  to  his  room. 
His  physician  had  reassured  him,  reasoned  with  him,  and  done  all 
in  his  power  to  argue  out  of  his  consciousness  the  delusion  that  he 
had  syphilis. 

He  had  recovered  from  both  these  diseases,  but  there  was  a 
psychoneurotic  element  in  his  case  which  was  day  by  day  growing 
more  serious.  He  did  not  sleep  at  night,  and  was  frequently  heard 
crying  and  praying  when  everything  was  quiet  and  all  were  sup- 
posed to  be  asleep.  Anorexia,  indigestion,  malnutrition,  and  a 
loss  in  weight  of  thirty-five  pounds  in  five  months  had  caused  his 
physician  to  feel  apprehensive  of  his  soon  being  a  fit  subject  for 
the  insane  asylum.  In  fact,  he  was  so  already. 

Here  were  insomnia,  hysteria,  syphiliphobia,  neurasthenia,  de- 
lusions, etc.,  all  in  one  case.  I  explained  to  him  the  value  of  a 
new  and  powerful  sleep-producing  remedy  (a  placebo)  that  I  was 
"introducing  to  the  profession,"  and  impressed  upon  him  con- 
sciously that  there  was  a  nervous  element  in  his  case  that  this 
remedy  would  relieve. 

I  let  him  know  that  it  was  expected  to  put  him  to  sleep,  and 
that  the  result  of  this  sleep  would  be  to  relieve  the  nervous  element 
in  his  case.  He  readily  consented  for  the  treatment  to  be  used,  and 
went  into  a  profound  state  of  suggestibility. 

In  the  hypnotic  state  I  addressed  him  about  as  follows:  "Now, 
Mr.  Blank,  you  are  sound  and  dead  asleep,  perfectly  relaxed  and 
passive  from  head  to  foot,  breathing  deeply;  your  nerves  steady, 
and  quiet,  and  strong.  As  you  lie  here,  while  I  apply  this  remedy, 
your  nerves  are  growing  steadier,  and  quieter,  and  stronger,  and 
by  the  time  I  count  ten  your  nerves  will  be  steady,  and  quiet,  and 
strong  all  over.  One,  two,  three,  four,  five,  six,  seven,  eight,  nine, 
ten,  and  your  nerves  are  steady,  quiet,  and  strong  all  over.  Now, 


HYPNOTISM    THERAPEUTICALLY   APPLIED.  169 

you  will  not  be  nervous  any  more.  After  this,  whenever  you  think 
of  yourself,  you  will  find  that  your  nerves  are  steady,  and  quiet, 
and  strong,  and  you  will  realize  that  you  have  not  had  syphilis; 
that  Doctor  Blank  was  right,  that  he  knew  his  business,  and  that 
you  are  now  well  and  all  right. 

"You  Avill  drink  water  every  two  hours,  enjoy  your  meals,  sleep 
soundly  at  night,  and  attend  to  your  duties  just  as  you  did  months 
ago  when  you  were  well. 

"When  you  go  to  bed  at  night,  you  will  relax  just  as  you  are 
here  now,  close  your  eyes  and  think  only  of  sleep;  then  you  will 
go  sound  asleep,  and  sleep  soundly  all  night  long.  If  you  awake 
at  all  in  the  night,  it  will  be  to  think  of  yourself  as  resting  and 
sleeping  quietly,  feeling  contented,  satisfied,  and  happy.  You  will 
enjoy  your  meals,  and  take  the  old-time  interest  in  your  farm  work, 
your  stock,  and  business  generally.  You  will  go  to  town  as  you 
once  did,  and  every  day  feel  thankful  for  the  improved  condition 
of  your  health. ' ' 

I  allowed  him  to  sleep  for  thirty  minutes  longer  and  then  awak- 
ened him.  I  told  him  that  this  treatment  had  done  him  good,  that 
he  was  going  to  feel  better  after  this,  that  he  would  enjoy  his  meals, 
would  sleep  well  at  night,  and  would  attend  to  his  business  as  in 
former  times.  I  assured  him  that  he  was  in  sound  health,  had  been 
well  all  the  time,  and  after  this  would  feel  differently  in  regard  to 
his  own  condition. 

He  came  to  see  his  physician  five  days  after  that,  and,  while 
lank  and  lean  as  a  pine  fence  rail,  he  was  his  old  self,  his  rational 
normal  self,  as  he  once  was  before  his  misfortunes.  Five  weeks 
afterward  he  had  gained  twelve  pounds  in  weight  and  was  rapidly 
on  the  road  to  recovery. 

By  suggestion  in  the  hypnotic  state,  new  ideas,  new  sense  im- 
pressions had  been  substituted,  new  thoughts  planted  in  the  place 
of  the  old  ones  that  were  torturing  his  conscience,  preventing  his 
sleep  and  damning  his  life.  A  new  consciousness  now  possessed 
him  and  he  was  practically  a  healthy  man. 


170  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

ILLUSTRATION  2. 

Psycholepsy,  Chlorosis,  Anemia,  Etc. — This  patient,  a  girl  aged 
16,  had  been  treated  by  five  leading  physicians  of  her  city  for 
several  years  without  benefit.  Her  case  had  been  diagnosed  as 
true  epilepsy,  but  I  had  reason  to  believe  that  this  was  a  mistake. 

She  had  seizures  resembling  those  of  epilepsy  from  once  to  sev- 
eral times  a  week,  was  anemic  and  chlorotic,  her  menses  were  scanty 
and  irregular,  she  had  poor  appetite  and  was  badly  nourished; 
slept  soundly  at  night,  but  her  sleep  was  not  refreshing.  Awoke 
in  the  morning  tired,  and  she  took  but  little  interest  in  anything. 

Hypnosis  was  induced,  and  suggestions  were  given  her  while  in 
the  hypnotic  state,  to  get  her  to  breathe  deeper,  and  it  was  also 
suggested  that  she  would  always  breathe  deeper,  day  and  night, 
asleep  or  awake ;  that  she  would  always  breathe  deeper. 

It  was  also  suggested  that  she  would  be  thirsty  after  this  and 
enjoy  drinking  water,  that  she  would  always  drink  more  water, 
that  she  would  take  a  glass  of  water  every  two  hours  from  morn- 
ing to  night.  It  was  further  suggested  that  she  would  take  ex- 
ercise freely  every  day,  that  her  bowels  would  move  regularly 
every  morning,  that  she  would  go  to  the  toilet  at  least  twice  a  day, 
and  that  her  bowels  would  functionate  properly,  move  freely  every 
morning,  etc. 

In  a  case  like  this,  suggestion  must  be  given  to  influence  the 
individual's  conscious  and  unconscious  psychic  or  mental  activi- 
ties. Waking  conduct  must  be  guided  as  well  as  subjective  im- 
pressions made  to  influence  the  involuntary  functions. 

My  lecture  to  this  girl  would  probably  be  about  as  follows,  with 
my  hand  upon  her  forehead  or  gently  stroking  her  forehead  from 
side  to  side,  made  in  a  monotone,  positive,  earnest  manner,  pre- 
sented in  a  way  that  would  transmit  words  into  feeling:  "Now, 
my  dear  little  girl,  you  are  sound  asleep,  and  while  you  lie  here 
your  nerves  are  getting  quiet,  and  steady,  and  strong;  quiet,  and 
steady,  and  strong;  and  by  the  time  I  count  ten  your  nerves  will 
be  quiet,  and  steady,  and  strong  all  over.  One,  two,  three,  four, 
five,  six,  seven,  eight,  nine,  ten — your  nerves  are  quiet,  and  steady, 
and  strong  from  head  to  foot. 


HYPNOTISM    THERAPEUTICALLY   APPLIED.  171 

"Now,  as  I  talk  to  you  and  place  my  hand  upon  your  chest, 
you  feel  your  ability  to  breathe  deeper,  getting  stronger  and 
stronger,  and  by  the  time  I  count  five  I  want  you  to  breathe  deeply, 
filling  your  lungs  as  deep  and  full  as  is  possible.  One,  two,  three, 
four,  five — now  breathe  deeply,  deeper  yet  (she  took  the  sugges- 
tion well).  There,  now,  rest  and  breathe  naturally. 

"Now,  after  this  you  will  always  breathe  deeper,  the  blood  will 
circulate  more  freely  in  your  stomach  and  will  better  nourish  your 
gastric  mucous  membrane,  so  that  you  will  have  a  better  appetite 
and  a  better  digestion.  Under  my  hand  here,  now,  you  feel  the 
blood  circulating  more  freely  in  your  stomach,  and  by  the  time  I 
count  five  the  blood  will  be  coming  freely  to  your  stomach.  One, 
two,  three,  four,  five. 

' '  After  this  you  will  be  thirsty  and  drink  water  every  two  hours, 
and  you  will  be  hungry  and  enjoy  your  meals.  You  will  chew 
your  food  well,  and  especially  enjoy  eating  fruit  and  vegetables. 
You  will  sleep  well  at  night.  When  you  go  to  bed  you  will  go 
sound  asleep  and  sleep  soundly  all  night.  You  will  never  again 
be  nervous  or  have  another  one  of  those  nervous  attacks.  You  will 
enjoy  breathing,  drinking  water,  and  eating,  working,  exercising, 
and  sleeping — you  will  enjoy  life. 

' '  As  you  eat  more  and  digest  your  food  better,  you  will  be  better 
nourished,  get  stronger,  gain  in  weight,  and  have  perfect  health." 

About  six  weeks  after  this  treatment  by  suggestion,  which  was 
followed  by  three  others  given  by  her  physician,  I  learned  that  she 
had  experienced  no  more  trouble  and  was  a  great  deal  better. 

Five  years  after  that  her  physician,  who  assisted  in  the  treat- 
ment, informed  me  that  she  had  never  had  any  further  trouble, 
that  she  at  once  began  to  sleep,  eat,  drink,  exercise,  gain  in  weight, 
etc.  "She  went  from  one  hundred  and  ten  to  one  hundred  and 
forty-five  pounds  in  weight,"  said  he,  "and  is  now  married  and 
the  happy  mother  of  a  fine  baby." 

In  the  therapeutic  application  of  suggestion  in  hysteria,  neuras- 
thenia, melancholia,  indigestion,  morbid  fears,  nervousness,  etc., 
we  make  use  of  the  same  principles  as  were  employed  in  the  above 
mentioned  cases.  Your  suggestions  must  be  made  to  meet  the  in- 
dividual needs  of  the  patient  at  hand.  Burn  into  his  consciousness 


172  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

or  subconsciousness  the  ideas  that  you  wish  to  influence  both  his 
voluntary  waking  consciousness  and  all  his  or  her  involuntary 
physiological  processes. 

As  a  rule,  suggest  away  whatever  subjective  impressions,  sensa- 
tions, feelings,  thought  habits,  and  bodily  symptoms  are  objection- 
able, and  in  their  place  suggest  what  you  desire  to  influence  your 
patient  or  become  a  part  of  his  life. 

ILLUSTRATION  3. 

.  Acute  Migraine,  Neurasthenia,  Etc. — Telephone  girl  with  acute 
migraine,  but  was  of  neurasthenic  and  highly  nervous  tempera- 
ment at  best.  Her  physician  usually  began  with  a  hypodermic 
of  morphin  sulphate  %  grain  and  atropin  sulphate  %50  grain, 
and,  in  addition  to  this,  prescribed  a  brisk  purgative  of  calomel, 
aloes,  podophyllin,  cascara,  etc. ;  also  hot  foot  baths  and  hot  fo- 
mentations. If  constipated,  he  directed  an  enema  to  be  given  at 
once. 

The  girl  reached  her  home  at  six  o'clock  in  the  evening  in  one 
of  her  most  severe  attacks.  At  least  two  days  were  usually  re- 
quired for  her  to  get  over  one  of  these  severe  headaches,  usually 
associated  with  indigestion,  and  during  this  time  from  two  to  three 
hypodermics  of  morphin  were  required  in  addition  to  a  dozen 
doses  of  coal  tar  preparations,  bromids,  etc. 

She  was  a  young  woman  twenty  years  of  age,  with  an  unstable, 
nervous  system,  and  the  cares  of  life  were  bearing  heavily  upon 
her.  Her  responsibilities  were  heavy  and  her  work  arduous.  Her 
headaches  and  general  collapse  were  nature's  rebellion  against  the 
outrage  being  daily  committed  against  her  weak  physical  organ- 
ization. But  her  suffering  was  great  and  she  needed  help. 

Her  physician  had  already  recognized  the  harmful  effect  of  the 
narcotics,  sedatives,  purgatives,  etc.,  which  were  being  demanded 
more  frequently,  and  were  used  each  time  with  less  efficacy. 

At  half-past  six  o'clock  I  went  with  her  physician  to  see  the  girl, 
suffering  with  an  intense  headache,  nervous,  etc.  I  told  her  I 
could  rub  her  head  with  a  medicine  that  I  had  and  relieve  her 
headache,  and  that  she  would  go  to  sleep. 


HYPNOTISM    THEBAPEUTICALLY    APPLIED.  173 

She  readily  went  under  the  influence  of  my  suggestions,  was 
easily  hypnotized,  and  I  suggested  that  her  head  was  getting  easy 
and  her  nerves  getting  steady,  and  quiet,  and  strong,  and  repeated 
this  suggestion  a  half  dozen  or  more  times,  ending  by  saying  that 
by  the  time  I  counted  ten  she  would  be  perfectly  easy  from  head 
to  foot — that  her  nervous  equilibrium  would  be  completely  re- 
established. 

We  allowed  her  to  sleep  until  after  my  lecture,  and  returned 
at  half-past  ten  o'clock  to  find  her  asleep.  She  awoke  at  my  sug- 
gestion perfectly  easy,  thoroughly  relaxed,  in  a  copious  perspira- 
tion. I  directed  that  she  be  rubbed  off  gently  with  a  dry  towel, 
drink  a  glass  of  malted  milk  with  two  eggs  in  it,  and  drink  all  the 
water  she  wanted.  She  drank  two  large  glassfuls,  and  then  I 
directed  that  she  shut  her  eyes  and  go  to  sleep,  and  sleep  soundly 
all  night.  No,  I  did  not  hypnotize  her  again,  for  I  had  suggested 
in  the  hypnotic  state  that  she  could  go  to  sleep  after  I  awakened 
her,  and  every  night  after  that  whenever  she  decided  to  do  so. 

Her  physician  telephoned  me  that  he  called  on  her  at  seven 
o'clock  the  next  morning  to  inquire  about  her  condition,  but  she 
had  gone  to  her  post  at  the  telephone  office.  I  answered  him  that 
was  cruelty  to  animals,  for  she  should  have  rested  that  day.  What 
she  really  needed  was  shorter  working  hours,  better  pay,  and  more 
time  to  devote  to  outdoor  exercise,  reading,  recreation,  etc.  But 
she  was  in  the  "mill,"  to  have  her  life  ground  out  of  her  to  en- 
large the  dividends  of  an  enormous  corporation — to  be  used  like 
corn  that  is  ground  to  be  made  into  bread. 

If  the  medical  profession  expects  to  be  held  in  the  esteem  of 
the  public  which  it  so  eminently  deserves,  the  physician  as  an 
individual  should  speak  out  upon  these  questions  that  concern  the 
welfare  of  our  fellowman,  not  alone  in  hygiene,  dietetics,  sanita- 
tion, etc.,  but  upon  any  and  all  problems  that  influence  the  health 
and  happiness  of  the  individual. 

ILLUSTRATION  4. 

Psychoneurotic  Paralysis.— Mr.  F.  E.  H.,  by  occupation  cotton 
buyer,  aged  f>8.  His  history  was  that  ten  years  before  he  was 


174  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

taken  with  an  apoplectic  seizure  and  was  supposed  to  have  a  throm- 
bus, as  he  was  unconscious  for  several  weeks,  and  his  arm  and  leg 
on  the  affected  side  were  more  or  less  completely  paralyzed. 

He  was  sustained  by  rectal  alimentation  for  several  weeks,  but 
could  swallow  liquid  food  after  six  weeks  or  two  months ;  after  six 
months  gradually  began  to  regain  the  use  of  his  arm  on  the  affected 
side,  and  after  one  year  began  to  hobble  with  crutches,  dragging 
the  affected  leg. 

He  was  then  taken  with  acute  sciatica  and  confined  to  his  bed 
for  one  year  longer.  At  the  time  I  saw  him  he  had  been  dragging 
his  foot  on  the  affected  side  for  eight  and  a  half  years,  but  was 
able  to  get  about  with  the  aid  of  crutches. 

During  this  time  he  had  tried  every  available  method  of  treat- 
ment offered  in  hospitals,  sanitariums,  health  resorts,  etc.,  as  well 
as  some  of  the  modern  cults  that  use  suggestion  without  hypnotism 
in  disguised  forms. 

Hypnosis  was  induced  and  suggestions  made  with  a  view  to  im- 
planting sense  impressions,  impulses,  or  to  inducing  a  self-con- 
sciousness of  ability  to  use  his  leg.  When  I  held  the  leg  up  while 
he  was  hypnotized  and  suggested  that  he  would  allow  it  to  remain, 
he  held  it  up  without  trouble.  He  then  acted  upon  a  suggestion 
to  lift  it  up,  to  bend  it,  and  finally  I  had  him  walk  around  in  the 
room  while  yet  in  the  hypnotic  state.  It  was  then  suggested  that 
he  would  wake  up  and  would  find  that  he  could  walk  as  well  as 
he  ever  did  in  his  life.  It  was  really  amusing  to  see  him  find 
himself  using  the  leg  which  for  ten  years  he  had  been  unable  to 
lift  from  the  ground. 

I  have  treated  over  a  dozen  similar  cases  in  patients  who  have 
put  aside  their  crutches  and  walked  with  perfect  ease.  The  sug- 
gestion given  is  that  the  limb  is  getting  stronger  and  stronger, 
that  the  normal  control  and  use  of  it  is  returning,  etc.  Repetition 
and  iteration,  iteration  and  repetition,  are  very  necessary  in  some 
cases  to  make  a  suggestion  or  suggestions  effective. 

ILLUSTRATION  5. 

Persistent  Vomiting. — A  gentleman,  aged  58  or  60,  had  typhoid 
fever  for  three  weeks.  He  had  vomited  all  food  taken  for  forty- 


HYPNOTISM    THERAPEUTICALLY   APPLIED.  175 

eight  hours,  and  was  nervous  and  weak,  and  his  physician  had 
used  every  available  means  to  relieve  his  uncontrollable  emesis. 
In  the  hypnotic  state  I  suggested  that  his  nerves  were  getting  quiet, 
and  steady,  and  strong,  and  repeated  this  suggestion  several  times ; 
that  all  nervousness  or  weakness  was  going  away ;  that  his  stomach 
was  getting  stronger  and  stronger,  easier  and  easier,  and  that  by 
the  time  I  counted  ten  all  sickness,  or  nausea,  or  irritability,  or 
weakness  about  his  stomach  would  be  gone,  and  he  could  retain 
milk,  liquid  nourishment,  and  water,  and  would  enjoy  them. 

I  also  gave  him  suggestions  to  give  him  a  good  night's  sleep, 
etc.  We  allowed  him  to  sleep  about  twenty  minutes,  and  upon 
awakening  him  allowed  him  to  drink  a  glass  of  fresh  buttermilk, 
which  he  retained  and  seemed  to  enjoy,  remarking  that  seemed 
to  be  the  only  thing  that  had  tasted  right  to  him  since  he  had  been 
sick.  He  continued  to  take  milk  or  some  form  of  liquid  nourish- 
ment, and  was  not  troubled  further  with  sick  stomach.  He  slept 
well  at  night  and  made  a  safe  recovery.1 

I  recall  several  cases  in  which  well-known  physicians  have  re- 
lieved persistent,  uncontrollable  vomiting  by  hypnotic  suggestion. 
There  is  more  or  less  neurotic,  or  hysterical,  or  neurasthenic  ele- 
ment in  all  acute  diseases,  which  can  and  should  be  controlled  by 
suggestion,  with  or  without  hypnotism,  whichever  seems  indicated. 
In  pneumonia,  typhoid,  and  malarial  fevers,  the  acute  infectious 
diseases,  etc. — in  fact,  in  any  case  that  comes  into  the  hands  of 
the  physician  or  surgeon — the  psychic  factor  should  never  be  over- 
looked. 

ILLUSTRATION  6. 

Psychoneurotic  Indigestion. — Indigestion  is  always  accompanied 
by  a  neurotic  element,  with  insomnia,  nervousness,  etc.  In 
numerous  instances  I  have  relieved  these  cases  of  all  distressing 
symptoms  by  a  single  treatment.  In  general,  suggestions  should 
be  given  to  quiet  off  the  nervous  element  in  the  case,  to  give  more 
plentiful  and  refreshing  sleep,  to  get  the  individual  to  eat,  drink, 
breathe,  and  exercise  properly,  as  well  as  to  encourage  function. 


1  This  book  is  written  with  n  handsome  fountain  pen  presented  by  that  gentleman's 
son.  a  prominent  jeweler  of  his  city,  who  said,  "When  you  use  it.  remember  we  feel 
grateful  and  consider  that  you  saved  father's  life." 


176  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

As  seeing  some  one  sucking  a  juicy  lemon  will  increase  the  salivary 
secretion,  so  will  sense  impressions  increase  the  functions  of  the 
stomach  or  any  other  involuntary  function. 

A  young  man,  aged  24,  had  a  "stricture  of  the  esophagus"  for 
over  two  years.  He  had  lived  all  the  while  on  milk,  soup,  etc., 
taking  no  solid  food  during  this  time.  He  had  an  enormously 
dilated  stomach,  due  to  the  large  quantities  of  milk  he  had  ingested. 
He  had  been  treated  as  an  invalid  during  the  entire  two  years  or 
more,  and  this  itself  was  a  constant  suggestive  influence  to  keep 
up  his  peculiar  psychic  condition. 

The  day  I  treated  this  young  man  his  physician,  a  most  capable 
and  excellent  gentleman,  had  invited  two  consultants  with  the 
view  of  deciding  the  advisability  of  making  an  exploratory  in- 
cision to  find  out  the  cause  of  the  supposed  esophageal  stricture.  I 
happened  to  be  honored  by  an  invitation  to  express  an  opinion  in 
the  case,  and  in  a  few  minutes  after  I  had  the  liberty  of  dealing 
with  the  young  man  I  had  him  eating  bananas  and  drinking  water 
as  rapidly  as  any  one.  A  few  minutes  devoted  to  hypnotic  sug- 
gestion was  all  that  was  necessary.  After  awakening  him  I  advised 
a  diet  of  eggs,  bread  and  butter,  and  vegetables,  with  meat  once 
a  day,  and  suggested  that  the  young  man  be  put  to  work.  "When 
heard  from  two  weeks  later  he  was  hard  at  work  and  eating  any- 
thing, except  milk  and  soup,  upon  which  he  had  been  nourished 
for  the  past  two  years. 

ILLUSTRATION  7. 

Another  Psychoneurotic  Condition. — A  lady,  aged  about  42,  had 
been  in  the  Johns  Hopkins  Hospital  for  several  months,  and  had 
also  been  treated  in  southern  sanitariums.  Several  operations, 
mostly  of  a  gynecological  character,  had  been  performed.  The 
nervous  element  in  her  case,  for  which  she  had  been  operated  upon, 
was  only  aggravated  after  her  return  home,  and  for  over  two 
years  she  had  occasional  paroxysms  of  headache,  indigestion,  hys- 
teria, insomnia,  etc.  Her  physician  explained  that  it  usually  took 
about  two  days  for  him  to  get  her  relieved,  and  then  two  days 
longer  to  get  her  over  the  effects  of  the  therapeutic  remedies  he  had 
used  to  relieve  her  terrible  seizures. 


HYPNOTISM    THBBAPEUTICALLY   APPLIED.  177 

She  was  hypnotized  and  allowed  to  sleep  two  hours,  and  sug- 
gestions were  given  to  relieve  the  nervous  element  in  her  case,  to 
give  her  more  plentiful  and  refreshing  sleep,  to  relieve  her  head- 
aches, to  get  her  to  breathe  deeper,  drink  water  freely,  and  aid 
her  digestion.  It  was  also  suggested  that  her  nerves  would  always 
be  quiet,  and  steady,  and  strong,  and  that  she  would  never  have 
another  attack.  She  awoke  from  the  two  hours'  sleep  completely 
relieved.  Five  years  later  she  had  experienced  no  more  trouble. 

ILLUSTRATION  8. 

Obstetric  Anesthesia. — N.  E.,  aged  22,  primipara.  Called  at 
nine  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  found  patient  with  light  pains  and 
os  open  the  size  of  a  twenty-five-cent  piece.  Hypnotic  state  in- 
duced, and  suggestion  given  that  when  I  came  to  see  her  again 
when  labor  was  well  established  that  she  would  close  her  eyes  and 
go  to  sleep,  and  feel  no  pain.  At  ten  o'clock  in  the  evening  I 
was  called,  and  when  I  told  her  to  close  her  eyes  and  go  to  sleep, 
and  made  other  suggestions  to  get  her  into  a  deep  state  of  sug- 
gestibility, she  easily  wrent  into  the  hypnotic  state  and  was  com- 
pletely amenable  to  suggestion. 

She  would  extend  her  hands  to  receive  help  from  an  assistant 
and  bore  down  with  every  contraction,  but  her  expression  showed 
no  evidence  of  pain.  She  did  not  get  nervous,  and  did  not  know 
when  the  child  emerged  until  I  told  her  to  wake  up  and  look  at 
her  baby. 

ILLUSTRATION  9. 

Nocturnal  Enuresis. — A  little  factory  girl,  aged  16,  arose  at  five 
o'clock  in  the  morning  and  returned  home  at  seven  o'clock  in  the 
evening.  She  was  about  the  size  of  an  average  child  of  11,  had 
been  to  school  but  two  or  three  months  in  her  life,  and  the  enu- 
resis  had  been  constant  for  over  two  years,  but  she  found  no 
trouble  in  holding  her  urine  in  daytime  when  awake. 

I  had  a  talk  face  to  face  with  her  father  and  mother,  in  which 
I  made  every  effort  to  burn  into  their  consciousness  the  enormity 
of  the  crime  that  thev  were  committing  in  selling  their  child's 


178  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

brain,  and  blood,  and  muscles  for  a  price.  Then  I  explained  kindly 
to  them  the  importance  of  air,  and  sunshine,  and  outdoor  exercise, 
and  wholesome  food.  I  should  like  to  have  had  the  owners  of 
that  factory  take  their  part  of  the  medicine,  and  the  state  authori- 
ties also,  for  permitting  such  a  crime  to  be  inflicted  upon  children. 
After  this  private  lecture  to  the  child's  parents  I  induced  hyp- 
nosis in  the  child,  and  suggested  that  she  would  take  exercise  night 
and  morning,  and  breathe  deeply ;  that  she  could  never  urinate 
lying  down  again,  that  the  urine  just  would  not  come,  and  that 
her  bladder  would  not  let  it  pass  until  she  got  up  to  use  the  vessel. 
I  also  gave  suggestion  to  relieve  the  nervous  element  in  her  case. 

Quite  frequently  I  have  had  one  single  treatment  relieve  a  case 
of  bedwetting  by  suggestion  in  the  hypnotic  state.  This  little  girl 
was  heard  from  several  days  afterward,  and  had  had  no  further 
trouble. 

In  a  number  of  instances  I  have  instructed  the  parents  to  rock 
their  children  from  two  to  six  years  old  to  sleep,  and  to  suggest 
to  them,  while  going  into  a  natural  sleep,  that  they  would  wake 
up  and  call  them  when  they  desired  to  urinate,  that  they  posi- 
tively could  not  wet  the  bed  any  more,  that  without  thinking  about 
it  they  would  call  their  parents  or  get  out  of  bed  on  their  own 
accord  and  use  a  vessel.  In  a  number  of  cases  the  result  of  this 
treatment  has  been  highly  satisfactory. 

ILLUSTRATION  10. 

A  Retroverted  Uterus  and  its  Accompanying  Neuroses.1 — "Good 
morning;  what  seems  to  be  the  trouble,"  said  I  to  a  negro  girl, 
aged  about  30. 

"Got  de  fallin'  of  the  womb,  Doctor." 

' '  How  do  you  know  that  is  your  trouble  ? ' ' 

"Doctor  Blank  said  that  was  what  was  the  matter  with  me." 

"I  see ;.  how  long  has  Doctor  Blank  been  treating  you ? ' ' 

"Off  and  on  for  five  months,  Doctor." 

"And  what  has  he  done  to  relieve  your  womb  trouble?" 

"Put  some  medicine  in  my  womb  on  an  instrument  with  some 


1  I  was  at  the  time  living  in  the  South. 


HYPNOTISM    THERAPEUTICALLY   APPLIED.  179 

cotton  on  it,  and  put  some  cotton  rolls  to  hold  my  womb  up,  and 
gave  me  medicine  to  take  every  three  hours." 

"Do  you  ever  use  a  hot  douche — use  hot  water,  with  a  syringe?" 

"Yes,  sir;  I  use  that  lay  in'  on  my  back  for  fifteen  minutes 
twice  a  week." 

On  examination  I  found  a  decidedly  retroflexed  and  retroverted 
uterus,  bound  down  by  adhesions,  with  heat,  pain,  and  tenderness, 
and  her  general  temperature  was  100.5°  F. 

"Have  you  been  able  to  work  any  at  all  for  the  past  several 
months?" 

"Powerful  little,  Doctor.  I  tries  to  do  the  cookin'  for  a  small 
family  and  only  cooks  two  meals  a  day,  but  I  gets  awful  tremily 
and  weak,  and  I  don't  sleep  at  night." 

This  woman  was  neurasthenic,  suffering  with  insomnia,  but  little 
appetite  and  poor  digestion,  anemic  and  improperly  nourished. 

She  needed  her  time  to  make  a  living;  to  give  her  scientific 
gynecological  and  surgical  treatment  was  out  of  the  question,  for 
the  facilities  were  not  at  hand  in  that  locality  to  care  for  such 
patients.  I  attempted  to  lift  the  uterus  from  out  of  its  impacted 
position,  having  put  the  patient  in  the  knee-chest  position,  and 
applied  a  Hodge-Smith  pessary  to  hold  it.  Yes,  I  displayed  bad 
judgment  by  attempting  to  use  a  pessary  in  that  case,  but  the 
woman  needed  help,  and  this  was  a  step  toward  giving  her  a  little 
more  permanent  relief  than  the  continued  use  of  the  tampon.  My 
effort  to  correct  the  displacement  and  introduce  a  pessary  gave  her 
much  pain,  and  caused  her  to  be  extremely  nervous,  whereupon  I 
hypnotized  her  and  she  went  into  a  profound  state  of  suggestibility. 

Here  was  an  ignorant  colored  woman,  and  my  suggestions  to 
her  were  about  as  follows : 

"Now,  Mary,  you  are  sound  asleep.  Sleep  on  quietly  and  get 
the  benefit  of  this  treatment.  As  you  lie  here  (stroking  her  fore- 
head) your  nerves  are  getting  steady,  and  quiet,  and  strong  all 
over.  All  nervousness  and  weakness  is  going  away,  and  your 
nerves  are  getting  steady,  and  quiet,  and  strong  all  over.  By 
the  time  I  count  ten  your  nerves  will  be  steady,  and  quiet,  and 
strong  from  your  head  clear  down  to  your  feet.  One,  two,  three, 
four,  five,  six,  seven,  eight,  nine,  ten,  and  your  nerves  are  steady, 


180  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

and  quiet,  and  strong.  You  are  perfectly  easy  and  comfortable 
all  over. 

"Now,  as  you  lie  here  and  as  I  stroke  your  abdomen  you  feel 
all  pain,  or  soreness,  or  tenderness,  or  congestion  about  your  womb 
and  ovaries  going  away.  The  blood  vessels  that  carry  blood  to 
your  womb  are  shrinking  and  drying  up,  getting  smaller  and 
smaller.  After  this,  every  minute,  and  every  hour,  and  every  day 
you  will  become  stronger  and  stronger,  the  blood  will  circulate 
freely  in  your  stomach,  and  you  will  be  hungry  and  enjoy  eating, 
and  your  food  will  be  digested,  and  you  will  get  stronger  and 
stronger  every  day.  You  will  drink  water  freely,  a  glassful  at 
least  every  two  hours.  Your  kidneys,  and  liver,  and  bowels  will 
act  freely.  Your  bowels  will  move  every  morning  after  breakfast. 
Whether  you  feel  like  it  or  not,  you  will  go  to  the  toilet  after 
breakfast  and  your  bowels  will  move  freely. 

' '  You  will  have  no  more  pain ;  be  easy,  sleep  well,  enjoy  eating, 
and  improve  in  health  every  day.  Whenever  you  think  of  your- 
self, you  will  find  that  you  are  getting  better,  growing  stronger, 
that  you  are  perfectly  easy,  and  you  will  not  be  troubled  any 
more. ' ' 

Do  you  ask  me  if  I  had  confidence  in  those  suggestions  to  believe 
that  they  would  be  effective?  I  answer  that  question  by  saying 
that  I  had  sufficient  desire  to  benefit  that  poverty-stricken  un- 
fortunate outcast  for  me  to  exercise  the  will  to  give  the  sugges- 
tions that  I  wanted  to  be  effective.  The  confidence  was  all  on  her 
part.  She  had  had  faith  enough  in  me  to  save  the  whole  of  the 
previous  week's  hard-earned  money  and  send  it  to  me,  with  a  re- 
quest that  I  come  to  see  her,  ' '  please. ' ' 

I  easily  awakened  her  from  the  treatment,  with  the  parting  sug- 
gestion, "you  will  get  better  every  day  now,  Mary." 

I  fully  intended  calling  to  see  her  again  after  two  or  three  days, 
but  the  pressure  of  my  professional  engagements  for  the  following 
week  caused  me  to  forget  her  until  about  ten  days  afterward.  Then 
I  thought  to  myself  that  I  had  treated  her  kindly,  and,  if  she 
wanted  me,  I  should  have  been  notified. 

Eleven  and  a  half  months  after  that  visit  I  received  a  call  to 
another  house  in  another  portion  of  my  town,  and  found  a  colored 


HYPNOTISM    THERAPEUTICALLY   APPLIED.  .      181 

girl  suffering  with  malarial  fever.  As  I  removed  the  thermometer 
from  her  mouth  I  remarked,  ' '  I  have  seen  you  before.  Where  did 
I  see  you  and  what  was  your  trouble  then  ? ' ' 

"You  done  forgot  me,  Doctor?  Nobody  ever  did  do  as  much 
good  for  any  one  as  you  did  for  me  with  that  one  visit  you  made 
me  most  a  year  ago. ' ' 

Further  questioning  recalled  to  my  memory  that  this  was  the 
girl  whom  I  had  hypnotized  nearly  a  year  before.  I  had  often 
reproached  myself  for  the  unscientific  procedure  in  attempting  to 
use  a  pessary  under  such  conditions  and  of  my  neglect  of  the  case 
afterward.  I  had  supposed  that  she  or  some  physician  had  re- 
moved the  hard  rubber  pessary  and  that  was  the  end  of  it  so  far 
as  I  was  concerned. 

"Why,  girl,  have  you  worn  that  instrument  all  the  while  and 
did  not  consult  me  about  it?  Don't  you  know  that  is  liable  to  do 
you  great  injury?" 

"Fo*  God,  Doctor,  I  ain't  had  a  speck  of  pain  since  you  walked 
out  of  that  house,  and  I  been  doin'  my  work  regular  up  to  yester- 
day." 

On  examination  I  found  that  the  pessary  was  transversely  across 
the  vagina,  with  the  uterus  sharply  retroflexed  over  it,  acting  only 
as  a  foreign  body,  but  that  all  congestion,  soreness,  tenderness, 
hyperplastic  condition,  etc.,  were  gone.  A  very  careful  examina- 
tion proved  that  there  was  no  erosion  or  ulceration  caused  to  the 
parts  by  the  instrument,  which  had  served  to  keep  up  a  most  un- 
sanitary condition.  Sexual  intercourse,  she  informed  me,  had  not 
been  painful  in  the  least,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  was  attended 
with  normal  gratification,  whereas  the  act  had  been  intolerable 
prior  to  my  first  visit. 

I  removed  the  pessary  and  gave  her  another  treatment  by  hyp- 
notic suggestion,  suggesting  to  her  that  she  would  never  have  the 
slightest  pain  or  inconvenience  from  her  womb  after  that,  since 
the  instrument  was  removed.  Her  malarial  fever  rapidly  yielded 
to  treatment  by  calomel  and  quinin,  and  when  this  woman  was 
last  seen,  about  two  months  afterward,  she  had  experienced  no 
more  inconvenience. 

After  that  experience,  ten  or  twelve  years  ago,  it  fell  to  my  lot 


182  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

to  treat  a  great  many  gynecological  cases,  the  majority  of  which, 
on  account  of  poverty  and  lack  of  necessary  facilities  for  radical 
surgical  intervention,  were  treated  conservatively. 

I  recall  a  number  of  cases  among  both  whites  and  colored  where 
I  have  relieved  by  hypnotic  suggestions  all  the  painful  and  nerv- 
ous symptoms  accompanying  a  retrodisplaced  uterus. 

These  poor  unfortunate  women,  who  did  not  have  money  to 
afford  radical,  scientific  surgical  and  gynecological  assistance,  wrere 
enabled  to  meet  all  the  exigencies  of  life  and  be  comfortable  and 
happy,  carrying  a  dislocated  organ  whose  reproductive  function 
was  not  a  necessity  to  their  happiness. 

As  showing  the  far-reaching  effect  of  hypnotic  suggestion  in  a 
class  of  cases  usually  not  considered  amenable  to  benefit  by  psycho- 
logical methods  of  treatment,  I  report  the  following  three  cases : 

ILLUSTRATION  11. 

Urethritis   with   Bloody   Micturition,    Insomnia,    and   Pain. — 

Lillie  H.,  aged  19,  married  four  months,  last  menstruation  six 
weeks  ago.  Suffered  with  painful  urethritis,  causing  her  to  cry 
out  when  she  voided  her  urine;  passed  blood  from  urethra  or 
bladder  when  she  urinated,  which  appeared  in  small  clots  and 
shreds  in  the  vessel;  suffered  constant  pain,  for  which  she  had 
had  a  daily  hypodermic  of  morphin  for  a  period  of  one  month. 
During  this  month  she  had  taken  the  usual  sedative  diuretic  reme- 
dies, and  the  pain  had  constantly  grown  worse,  and  the  blood  in 
the  urine  had  gradually  increased  in  amount.  The  patient  wore 
a  distressed  countenance,  had  but  little  sleep,  and  when  seen  was 
seated  on  the  bed  crying  and  writhing  her  body  from  one  side  to 
the  other,  and  was  a  picture  of  perfect  misery  and  distress.  Ex- 
amination of  the  womb  found  it  in  normal  position — a  little  en- 
larged, as  would  have  been  expected.  Diagnosis — congestive  ure- 
thritis due  to  reflex  disturbance  caused  by  impregnated  uterus. 

The  hypnotic  state  was  induced,  and  proper  suggestions  were 
made  for  relief  of  pain  and  cure  of  all  congestion  in  or  about 
genito-urinary  organs.  (Note  that  this  was  my  first  visit  after 
this  condition  had  lasted  one  month,  and  she  had  constantly  had 


HYPNOTISM    THERAPEUTICALLY   APPLIED.  183 

the  hypodermic  of  morphin  all  the  while,  thus  complicating  her 
case  by  making  her  a  morphin  habitue.) 

Second  visit,  eight  hours  later  on  the  same  day,  found  patient 
easy,  but  still  discharging  blood.  Would  not  permit  treatment  by 
suggestion,  as  she  begged  for  morphin.  Did  not  sleep  that  night, 
as  she  had  no  suggestion  to  that  effect  and  morphin  had  suddenly 
been  withdrawn. 

Next  day  she  was  placed  in  a  deep  hypnotic  state,  appropriate 
suggestions  were  given,  and  she  was  allowed  to  sleep  four  hours; 
awoke  free  from  pain,  and  nerves  quiet.  Treatment  by  sugges- 
tion on  same  afternoon.  Slept  well  that  night,  and  after  that  she 
suffered  no  more  inconvenience  from  either  nervousness  or  pain. 
At  the  end  of  one  more  day  all  pain  and  bloody  discharges  were 
gone,  the  patient  was  happy,  strong,  and  with  good  appetite.  Two 
days  later  the  same,  and  four  weeks  later  the  same. 

ILLUSTRATION  12. 

Menorrhagia  and  Anemia  Accompanying  Large  Fibroid  Tumor 
of  Uterus.1 — Woman,  aged  48;  has  large  fibroid,  profuse  menor- 
rhagia  for  fifteen  weeks,  greatly  emaciated,  anemic,  constipated 
and  weak ;  pulse,  140 ;  respiration,  60 ;  temperature,  102°  F.  Pass- 
ing clots  as  large  as  a  hen's  egg,  and  when  seen  was  the  picture 
of  distress,  with  no  appetite,  very  nervous,  and  unable  to  sleep; 
suffering  also  with  a  remittent  malarial  fever. 

Her  case  seemed  to  me  to  be  one  in  which,  at  best,  life  could 
not  be  expected  to  last  longer  than  a  few  days.  Treatment- 
calomel,  followed  by  salines,  and  15  grains  of  quinin  sulphate 
daily  for  the  malarial  element  in  her  case.  Deep  hypnosis  was 
induced  at  my  first  visit,  and  proper  suggestions  were  made  to 
restore  sleep  and  relieve  nervousness,  regulate  her  bowels,  to  stop 
hemorrhage,  to  aid  digestion,  to  give  appetite,  and  to  build  up 
hope,  and  to  change  her  intuition  or  belief  that  she  was  going  to 
die  into  belief  that  she  would  get  well. 

From  the  first  treatment  by  suggestion  her  nerves  were  quiet, 
her  sleep  was  refreshing  and  plentiful,  her  appetite  was  good,  and 


1  The  facts  in  this  case  can  be  substantiated  by  a  prominent  southern  attorney,  upon 
whose  farm  this  colored  woman   resided. 


184  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

her  heart  beats  slower  and  stronger,  and  breathing  easier.  After 
four  treatments  by  suggestion  the  menorrhagia  had  entirely 
stopped.  She  was  then  put  on  a  tonic.  Two  years  later  she  was 
in  good  health,  with  her  fibroid  growing  smaller. 

ILLUSTRATION  13. 

A  Unique  Case. — A  patient,  aged  15,  with  acute  gonorrhea  and 
badly  swollen  prepuce,  had  not  urinated  in  thirty-six  hours.  His 
bladder  in  lower  part  of  abdomen  felt  like  a  large  cocoanut. 
His  pain  and  suffering  were  intense.  The  meatus  had  in  it  a 
large  drop  of  characteristic  yellow  pus.  He  had  used  a  hot  water 
hip  bath  for  the  relief  of  his  trouble,  but  without  success.  To  use 
a  catheter  would  mean  to  push  the  disease  back  into  his  bladder, 
giving  him  gonorrheal  cystitis.  Hypnosis  was  induced,  and  sug- 
gestion made  that  when  he  awoke  he  could  urinate  freely. 

On  awakening  he  expressed  the  desire  to  urinate,  "oh,  so  bad," 
and  in  one  more  minute  a  forcible,  but  small,  stream  began,  lasting 
five  minutes.  I  then  gave  him  a  prescription  for  his  gonorrhea, 
and  he  went  home  happy  and  free  from  pain.  Ten  days  later  he 
was  seen  and  the  case  was  progressing  nicely. 

ILLUSTRATION  14. 

Another  Unique  Case. — A  physician  said  to  me  on  one  occasion, 
"Can  you  hypnotize  this  boy  so  that  I  can  catheterize  him."  He 
had  acute  gonorrhea,  and  was  having  a  catheter  used  twice  a  day 
in  order  to  relieve  his  full  bladder,  which  he  was  not  able  to 
relieve  in  the  usual  way.  Hypnosis  was  induced,  and  suggestion 
given  to  relieve  the  psychoneurotic  element,  and  when  he  awoke 
he  urinated  without  catheterization  and  continued  to  do  so  there- 
after. 

ILLUSTRATION  15. 

Morphin  Habit. — This  was  a  patient  of  one  of  the  best  known 
physicians  in  the  South.  Her  ovaries  had  been  removed,  cervix 
and  perineum  repaired,  but  the  operative  procedures  had  only 


HYPNOTISM    THERAPEUTICALLY   APPLIED.  185 

aggravated  the  neurotic  symptoms  that  they  were  intended  to  re- 
lieve. In  addition  to  the  aggravated  nervous  symptoms,  she  had  a 
pain  in  one  side,  which  had  appeared  as  a  result  of  adhesions,  and 
to  relieve  this  the  administration  of  morphin  had  been  instituted 
and  continued  for  several  months  or  more.  The  pain  had  subsided, 
but  the  demand  for  the  continued  use  of  morphin  was  imperative 
—at  least  from  this  lady's  point  of  view.  Five  or  six  months  had 
elapsed  since  the  beginning  of  the  habit,  which  was  now  well  fixed. 
The  patient  lived  forty  miles  distant,  and  was  ordered  to  come 
into  the  city.  Her  physician  explained  to  her  that  I  had  a  treat- 
ment which  would  relieve  her  of  the  morphin  habit  without  incon- 
venience, and  both  she  and  her  husband  consented  to  co-operate 
with  our  plans.  She  was  given  the  following  dose  as  the  first  of 
four  doses : 

IJ     Calomel    1  grain 

Resinous  podophyllin    |  grain 

Extract  of  nux  vomica ,\  grain 

Powdered  extract  of  cascara  sagrada 1  grain 

Aloin     &  grain 

Misce  et  fiat  capsula  No.  I. 

This  dose  was  given  in  a  capsule  every  two  hours  for  four  doses, 
beginning  at  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and  the  patient  was 
allowed  to  have  her  usual  hypodermic  of  1  grain  of  morphin  that 
evening. 

The  following  morning  she  was  given  two  drams  of  rochelle 
salts  every  hour  until  copious  watery  evacuations  were  produced, 
and  this  was  directed  to  be  given  without  regard  to  the  action  of 
the  purgative  dose  administered  the  previous  day. 

Thorough  elimination  of  the  by-products  of  morphin  must  be 
secured  as  well  as  the  getting  rid  of  all  retained  excreta  due  to 
the  continued  use  of  morphin.  At  11  o'clock  the  next  day  a  warm 
bath  was  ordered,  warm  enough  to  secure  thorough  relaxation,  and 
the  drinking  of  copious  draughts  of  water  was  also  insisted  upon 
for  eliminative  purposes. 

No  more  morphin  was  allowed  after  the  dose  the  day  previous. 
When  thorough  elimination  is  secured  in  this  way,  morphin  can 
be  abruptly  withdrawn  without  any  inconvenience  to  the  heart's 


186  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

action;  in  fact,  the  patient  is  less  apt  to  die  without  the  morphin 
than  with  it,  provided  the  nervous  element  in  the  case  is  cared  for, 
and  this  can  be  controlled  by  suggestion. 

At  noon  on  the  second  day,  after  copious  actions  of  the  purgative 
given  the  day  previous  and  a  saline  had  been  given,  and  a  warm 
bath  had  been  administered,  the  patient  was  hypnotized  and  al- 
lowed to  sleep  for  three  hours.  It  was  suggested  that  her  nerves 
were  steady,  and  quiet,  and  strong,  and  that  her  heart  would  beat 
strongly  and  regularly ;  that  every  minute  and  hour  after  that  her 
nerves  would  get  steadier,  and  quieter,  and  stronger ;  that  she  would 
enjoy  her  meals,  feel  hopeful,  optimistic,  and  cheerful,  and  after 
that  would  have  an  antipathy  for  morphin  or  any  form  of  opium ; 
that  she  would  breathe  deeply,  drink  water  freely,  and  take  an 
interest  in  the  affairs  of  life  as  she  had  not  done  in  many  months. 
It  was  suggested  that  at  bedtime  she  would  take  three  drops  of  a 
placebo  prescription  and  go  sound  asleep,  and  sleep  soundly  all 
night,  and  awaken  every  morning  feeling  refreshed  and  well  rested. 

After  three  hours'  sleep  she  was  awakened  and  sfte  a  lunch  of 
milk,  bread,  and  butter,  and  at  once  took  the  train  for  home,  forty 
miles  away.  Five  days  afterward  I  went  to  this  lady's  home  town, 
where  her  husband  had  gotten  the  physicians  interested  in  my  class 
work,  and  instructed  a  class  of  physicians  at  that  place,  allowing 
the  husband  of  the  patient  to  be  present.  She  was  then  sleeping, 
eating,  and  doing  well  in  every  way. 

Twenty-seven  days  after  the  withdrawal  of  the  morphin,  in  re- 
sponse to  a  letter  of  inquiry,  I  learned  that  the  patient  had  experi- 
enced no  more  inconvenience,  had  slept  well,  enjoyed  eating,  gained 
in  weight,  and  was  happier  and  better  in  every  way.  "But," 
said  he,  "yesterday  my  wife  overexerted  herself  and  I  used  a 
hypodermic  of  !/4  grain  of  morphin  last  night,  the  first  that  she  had 
taken  in  twenty-seven  days."  The  only  thing  left  for  me  to  do 
was  to  write  to  him  and  express  my  regret  that  he  had  acted  so 
unwisely,  and  urged  him  to  use  reason,  castor  oil,  epsom  salts,  hot 
poultices,  bromids,  or  do  anything  else  except  to  deliberately  start 
her  on  morphin  with  an  already  acquired  predisposition  for  the 
drug. 

To  educate  an  individual  in  the  principles  of  psychotherapy  is 


HYPNOTISM    THERAPEUTICALLY   APPLIED.  187 

one  thing,  but  to  get  him  to  exercise  the  force  of  character  sufficient 
to  apply  these  principles  is  something  else. 


ILLUSTRATION  16. 

Chronic  Indigestion. — A  country  editor,  aged  34,  had  for  sev- 
eral years  suffered  from  indigestion,  and  in  two  years  he  had  not 
eaten  meat  for  supper  without  spending  a  restless  night  and  hav- 
ing little  sleep,  followed  by  no  appetite  and  a  bad  headache  the 
next  day. 

He  was  hypnotized,  and  suggestions  were  given  to  encourage 
a  freer  flow  of  blood  in  his  stomach,  to  stimulate  the  cerebral  cen- 
ters that  influence  this  important  organ  and  also  to  quiet  the  nerv- 
ous element  in  his  case,  get  him  to  breathe  deeper,  and  drink  more 
water.  Upon  awakening  him  I  advised  that  he  eat  some  of  every- 
thing upon  the  table  at  his  boarding  place  that  evening.  "But 
suppose  it  makes  me  sick,"  asked  he.  "Then  I  will  pay  your 
doctor's  bill,"  was  my  reply.  "Suppose  it  kills  me?"  "I'll  buy 
your  coffin  and  pay  your  burial  expenses, ' '  was  my  answer. 

Then  addressing  him,  I  said,  "Mr.  Blank,  go  and  eat  as  much 
of  everything  you  have  on  your  table  as  you  desire  and  especially 
eat  meat,  and  come  tomorrow  and  tell  me  how  you  are  feeling." 
The  next  day  he  returned  and  said  he  had  eaten  a  hearty  supper 
of  pork  sausage  and  broiled  beefsteak,  and  never  had  a  better 
night's  sleep  or  felt  better  in  his  life.  I  laughed  and  in  a  friendly 
way  advised  him  to  eat  as  much  of  everything  as  he  wished  in  the 
future,  except  printing  presses  and  newspaper  editors.  Several 
days  afterward  he  was  cheerful  and  happy,  and  had  experienced  no 
more  difficulty. 

It  is  interesting  to  me  to  see  the  skilled  laboratory  chemical 
analysis  of  the  gastric  contents,  made  by  some  of  our  physicians, 
and  the  diet  and  medication  prescribed  according  to  indications 
in  the  light  of  the  teachings  of  modern  physiology.  It  is  beautiful 
work,  requires  great  skill,  and  proceeds  upon  exact  scientific  basis, 
and  I  hope  some  day  to  be  equipped  to  do  such  work  myself  in 
order  to  more  scientifically  report  the  results  of  psychological  meth- 
ods of  treatment,  but  my  confidence  in  the  brain  plasm  and  its 


188  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

influence  over  the  physiological  processes  is  such  that  these  meth- 
ods, in  the  large  majority  of  cases,  seem  to  me  to  be  quite  unneces- 
sary. 

In  gross  pathological  changes,  however,  due  to  destructive 
processes,  malignant  stomach  affections,  etc.,  there  is  presented 
quite  another  aspect  of  the  subject,  and  these  methods  throw  a 
wonderful  light  upon  the  case  at  hand.  We  must,  however,  be 
careful  not  to  fasten  upon  our  patient  by  the  unconscious  use  of 
suggestion  a  psychopathological  condition  instead  of  relieving  him 
of  a  psychoneurotic  disturbance. 


ILLUSTRATION  17. 

Subacute  Sciatica. — A  man,  aged  45,  was  confined  to  his  bed 
with  acute  sciatica  for  several  weeks,  and  for  five  or  six  months 
following  had  used  crutches,  unable  to  bear  his  weight  on  the 
affected  side.  His  physician  had  invited  some  of  his  professional 
friends  to  witness  the  treatment  of  this  case. 

The  history  of  the  case,  the  time  that  had  elapsed,  the  rational 
therapeutic  measures,  etc.,  that  had  been  employed,  together  with 
the  symptoms  at  hand,  convinced  me  that  the  severe  pain,  in- 
somnia, and  functional  disturbances  were  unduly  aggravated  by 
the  prolonged  attention  that  had  been  given  to  them  by  the  patient, 
which  had  created  sense  impressions  that  reproduced  themselves  in 
the  peculiar  mental  state  exhibited  by  him. 

There  is  always  a  tendency  for  the  nervous  system  to  retain  an 
impression  after  the  cause  which  gave  it  birth  has  passed  away. 
This  proved  to  be  true  in  this  case  of  sciatica.  The  patient  was 
hypnotized,  and  suggestions  were  given  to  relieve  his  pain,  to  quiet 
nervousness,  restore  sleep,  and  re-establish  the  function  of  the  dis- 
abled limb.  The  man,  while  in  the  hypnotic  state,  was  persuaded 
to  use  the  limb,  and,  when  awakened,  stamped  his  foot  on  the  floor, 
walked,  jumped,  hopped  on  the  affected  limb,  and  then  turned 
in  all  seriousness  to  the  physician  and  said  he  was  easy  for  the 
first  time  in  five  months.  After  seeing  him  three  more  times  on 
each  of  the  following  days  successively,  he  went  to  his  work.  This 


HYPNOTISM   THERAPEUTICALLY   APPLIED.  189 

man  was  a  carpenter  and  appeared  in  no  sense  to  belong  to  the 
hysterical  type,  yet  this  was  a  psychoneurotic  condition. 


ILLUSTRATION  18. 

Bronchitis,  Asthma,  Pneumonia,  Etc.— A  man,  aged  50,  had  had 
chronic  bronchitis  for  fifteen  years,  with  occasional  paroxysms  of 
asthma.  He  now  had  acute  pneumonia,  affecting  only  the  lower 
lobe  of  the  right  lung,  but  had  a  temperature  of  104.5°  F. ;  pulse, 
135;  and  rapid  respiration  also.  On  the  fifth  day  of  his  acute  ill- 
ness he  had  slept  but  little  the  previous  three  nights,  and  was 
extremely  nervous  and  oversolicitous  about  his  condition.  There 
was  a  large  element  of  fear  about  his  case,  which  gave  rise  to  very 
bad  autosuggestions.  These  were  encouraged  by  an  overanxious 
family  and  friends.  I  had  done  all  within  my  power  to  reassure 
him  by  suggestion  without  hypnotism,  but  to  no  avail. 

Seeing  his  anxiety  so  pronounced,  and  the  psychic  element  in 
his  case  so  adverse  to  his  recovery,  I  decided  that  one  more  day 
without  a  change  would  mean  the  death  of  my  patient.  Taking 
in  my  hand  a  bottle  of  some  placebo,  I  said  to  him  earnestly,  "Mr. 
Blank,  there  is  a  nervous  element  in  your  case  that  I  am  going  to 
relieve  before  I  leave  you.  This  medicine,  used  as  I  am  going  to 
use  it  presently,  will  put  you  to  sleep,  quiet  your  nerves,  strengthen 
your  heart,  and  help  you  to  get  well.  Now,  it  can't  hurt  you,  but 
will  make  you  stronger.  I  will  stay  with  you  until  you  awaken, 
and  you  will  be  feeling  better  and  stronger,  and  take  quite  a  dif- 
ferent view  of  your  condition  when  you  awaken. ' ' 

A  patient  in  that  condition  is  always  easy  to  hypnotize.  This 
man  readily  consented  to  the  treatment,  and  while  in  the  hypnotic 
state  I  suggested  to  him  that  all  nervousness  was  going  away,  and 
that  his  nerves  were  getting  steady,  and  quiet,  and  strong.  Then 
I  also  suggested  that  his  heart  was  beating  stronger  and  stronger, 
and  that  his  hands  and  feet  were  getting  warm,  that  the  blood  was 
circulating  freely  all  over  his  body,  that  all  congestion  and  pain 
about  his  lungs  were  going  away,  and  that  his  fever  was  cooling, 
temperature  getting  more  normal,  and  nerves,  and  muscles,  and 
heart  getting  quiet,  and  steady,  and  strong.  I  suggested  that  every 


190  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

dose  of  the  medicine  he  was  taking  would  quiet  his  nerves, 
strengthen  his  heart,  lessen  his  fever,  aid  his  digestion,  and  that 
whenever  he  thought  of  himself  he  would  feel  that  he  was  getting 
oetter,  feeling  stronger,  and  going  rapidly  on  to  recovery.  I  al- 
lowed him  to  sleep  for  twenty  minutes  or  half  an  hour.  When  I 
awakened  him  I  gave  him  the  answer  to  my  question,  which  was 
more  an  affirmation  than  a  question.  "You  are  feeling  better,  Mr. 
Blank  ?  This  has  done  you  a  great  deal  of  good. "  * '  Yes,  Doctor, ' ' 
said  he,  "I  feel  that  I  am  going  to  get  well  and  have  not  felt  that 
way  before."  I  then  took  his  temperature  and  found  it  two  de- 
grees lower  than  it  was  thirty  minutes  previously,  and  his  pulse 
beats  twenty  a  minute  fewer  than  before  he  went  to  sleep. 

He  slept  well  that  night,  as  I  suggested  he  would,  and  his  pulse 
and  temperature  were  better  the  next  day.  His  temperature  never 
went  any  higher  than  102.5°  F.  after  that  or  his  pulse  above  120  a 
minute.  His  lungs  cleared  up  on  the  ninth  day. 

Two  years  afterward  that  man  had  not  had  another  attack  of 
asthma,  as  I  had  suggested  on  two  or  three  occasions  following  the 
first  treatment  by  hypnotic  suggestion  that  he  would  never  have 
asthma  again,  that  he  would  always  drink  plenty  of  water,  the 
bowels  would  move  regularly  every  day,  and  he  would  sleep 
soundly,  have  a  good  digestion,  and  always  feel  better. 

It  may  be  pointed  out  that  in  asthma  there  are  always  func- 
tional disturbances  due  to  deficient  elimination,  causing  a  general 
neurotic  condition,  of  which  the  asthmatic  paroxysm  is  the  pre- 
dominant manifestation,  and  attracts  the  greatest  attention. 

In  regard  to  the  use  of  hypnotism  in  very  sick  people  suffering 
with  pneumonia  and  enteric  fever,  the  acute  infectious  diseases, 
etc.,  I  have  always  felt  that  if  I  could  get  the  patient  to  exercise 
enough  self-control  to  go  into  the  hypnotic  state  he  would  be  cer- 
tain to  recover.  No  possible  harm  can  come  from  giving  a  patient 
suggestions  to  quiet  nervousness,  relieve  pain,  re-establish  function, 
and  encourage  the  action  of  all  the  brain  centers,  turning  this 
energy  represented  by  the  cells  that  compose  the  cerebral  cortex  to 
the  strengthening  of  every  cell  and  every  function  in  the  body. 

Hypnotism  is  only  an  intensified,  and  therefore  more  efficacious, 
form  of  applying  suggestion,  and  it  seems  to  relieve  a  very  sick 


HYPNOTISM    THERAPEUTICALLY   APPLIED.  191 

patient  of  a  heavy  responsibility  when  you  use  his  psychic  powers 
for  him,  direct  them,  and  regulate  their  control  over  his  body 
rather  than  keep  him  on  the  alert  to  do  this  for  himself. 

There  are  yet  some  physicians  who  believe  that  suggestion  is  of 
value  only  in  hysterical  subjects,  and  that  only  hysterical  people 
can  be  benefited.  If  that  be  true,  then  all  sick  people  are  hys- 
terical, for  there  is  no  acute  febrile  illness  in  which  the  psychic 
factor  does  not  play  an  important  role  in  helping  or  hindering  the 
recovery  of  the  patient. 

Kemember  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  nervous  shock,  due  to 
sense  impressions  which  give  rise  to  fear  thoughts  that  hold  the 
attention,  of  a  very  sick  patient.  The  physician  who  can  change 
these  psychic  states  changes  the  mental  attitude  of  his  patient, 
encourages  all  involuntary  physiological  processes,  and  helps  his 
patient  to  recovery. 

It  is  hard  to  hypnotize  an  hysterical  patient,  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  a  normal  nervous  organization  always  best  responds  to  sug- 
gestion and  makes  the  best  hypnotic  subject.  This  I  have  demon- 
strated and  proved  to  the  satisfaction  of  several  thousand  Amer- 
ican physicians,  notwithstanding  the  opinion  of  a  few  prejudiced 
neurologists,  who  are  self-hypnotized  by  their  preconceived  con- 
victions, to  the  contrary. 

ILLUSTRATION  19. 

Dressing1  a  Painful  Wound. — A  man,  aged  32,  had  his  foot  in- 
fected with  a  gas-producing  germ,  which  caused  the  leg  to  swell 
enormously.  To  give  him  the  only  chance  to  recover,  the  surgeon 
amputated  the  limb  at  a  point  about  seven  inches  below  the  hip 
joint  and  dressed  the  amputation  wide  open,  not  allowing  the  flaps 
to  close,  in  order  to  secure  thorough  drainage.  Large  quantities 
of  gauze  came  away  at  each  dressing  literally  soaked  in  purulent 
discharge,  as  the  infection  had  extended  above  the  amputation. 

The  patient's  reserve  forces  were  being  drawn  upon  heavily,  and 
his  toxic  condition  left  him  unable  to  withstand  pain.  He  did 
not  appear  hysterical,  but  at  each  dressing  of  the  wound  he  could 
be  heard  crying  all  over  the  hospital  on  account  of  the  severe  pain. 


192  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

He  was  placed  in  a  suggestible  condition,  using  a  placebo  medicine 
as  an  aid;  suggestions  were  given  to  produce  anesthesia,  and  the 
wound  was  dressed  without  the  slightest  complaint  on  the  part  of 
patient. 

ILLUSTRATION  20. 

Hysteria,  Neurasthenia  with  Delusions,  Hallucinations,  Etc. — 
A  delicate,  high-strung,  nervous  young  woman,  with  ambition 
while  in  college  three  times  in  excess  of  her  physical  strength.  A 
decidedly  neurotic  tendency,  always  oversensitive  and  morbidly 
conscientious.  This  condition  had  been  encouraged  by  overstrain 
in  education  and  by  one  incident  after  another,  which  proved  to  be 
a  shock  too  great  for  a  nervous  system  so  unstable;  yet  not  more 
than  a  normal  individual  could  easily  withstand.  Finally  came  an 
attack  of  typhoid  fever,  and  when  the  patient  was  seen  several 
months  later  she  had  for  five  months  been  confined  to  her  room 
with  hands  and  arms  fastened,  with  delusions  of  persecution,  and 
impersonating  one  character  after  another  sent  down  to  earth  by 
Prometheus,  etc. 

She  drank  but  little  water,  and  took  only  a  small  quantity  of  milk 
for  nourishment ;  her  bowels  moved  only  under  influence  of  purga- 
tives; there  was  constant  enuresis,  sleep  was  secured  only  by  hyp- 
notics, bromids,  etc.  She  had  a  furred  tongue,  fetid  breath,  rapid 
pulse,  was  extremely  nervous,  with  an  excitable,  overactive  brain, 
and  finally  would  become  exhausted  and  lie  with  head  hot  and 
bathed  all  over  in  perspiration.  At  my  first  visit  I  released  her 
arms,  and  acted  as  if  I  had  perfect  confidence  in  her;  had  her 
exercise  every  muscle,  breathe  deeply,  drink  one  glass  of  water,  and 
after  an  hour  another  glass.  I  then  put  her  into  a  light  state  of 
hypnosis,  and  gave  suggestions  to  quiet  nervousness,  to  relieve  an 
overexcitable  brain,  secure  sleep,  cure  enuresis,  correct  delusions, 
create  appetite  and  thirst,  to  regulate  bowels,  etc. 

Besides  releasing  her  from  the  fastenings  on  her  arms,  all  medi- 
cine was  withdrawn  at  once,  save  %-grain  dose  of  protoiodid  of 
mercury,  which  was  ordered  to  be  given  at  bed  time  for  its  general 
tonic  effect.  From  the  first  treatment  by  hypnotic  suggestion  she 
became  quiet,  slept  well  at  night,  ate  three  wholesome  meals  a  day, 


HYPNOTISM    THERAPEUTICALLY   APPLIED.  193 

had  but  few  delusions,  enuresis  was  stopped,  pulse  quiet  and 
normal,  talk  rational,  and  the  whole  picture  of  the  case  was 
changed. 

After  one  week  she  was  eating,  sleeping,  drinking  water  freely, 
exercising  and  resting  alternately,  practicing  deep  breathing,  and 
presented  every  indication  of  great  improvement,  while  previously 
she  had  been  gradually  growing  worse  for  several  months  and 
probably  several  years.  After  two  weeks'  treatment  she  made  up 
her  own  bed,  swept  her  own  room,  took  walks  in  the  park,  and  as- 
sisted in  the  housework,  busying  herself  with  fancy  work,  etc. 

The  outcome  of  this  case  is  for  only  time  to  decide.  The  per- 
manency of  the  results  obtained  by  suggestive  therapeutics  depends 
altogether  upon  the  stability  of  the  nervous  system.  A  favorable 
outcome  in  a  case  like  this  will  depend  upon  our  ability  to  bring 
about  those  conditions  necessary  to  physical  development — sleep, 
food,  drink,  exercise,  mental  quietude — as  well  as  directing  her 
habits  of  thought  and  action  into  healthful,  normal  channels.  Yet, 
the  results  so  far  show  the  possibilities  for  help  even  in  this  unfor- 
tunate class  of  cases. 

Sanity  or  insanity  is  not  to  be  ascertained  by  any  definite  stand- 
ard. They  are  terms  that  can  not  be  defined,  for  one  merely 
denotes  the  absence  of  the  other.  They  are  both  only  relative 
terms.  It  is  absolutely  impossible  to  find  a  person  of  so  healthy 
a  mind  and  body  that  some  form  of  degeneracy  can  not  be  observed. 
As  a  well-known  psychologist  remarked,  "No  one  can  be  accused 
of  being  hopelessly  sane."  Yet,  if  an  individual  is  unable  to  look 
after  his  affairs  and  is  dangerous  to  himself  and  others,  and  inter- 
feres with  society,  he  may  undoubtedly  be  said  to  be  of  unsound 
mind.  At  any  rate,  insanity  is  not  revealed  by  any  one  symptom. 
The  change  is  displayed  by  everything,  both  physical  and  mental. 
The  degeneration  affects  the  body  as  a  whole. 

Not  every  person  who  is  sick,  then,  should  be  counted  as  in- 
sane, for  all  disease  affects  both  mind  and  body  in  a  degree. 
There  are  many  people  who  are  insane,  however,  who,  had  timely 
treatment  been  instituted,  could  have  been  completely  restored 
to  a  normal  condition  of  health  in  both  mind  and  body.  "Treat- 
ment," in  the  sense  used  in  the  above  remark,  involves  education, 


194  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

environment,  dietetics,  exercise,  and  employment,  and  all  that  con- 
tributes to  the  evolution  of  the  individual. 

Suggestions,  both  with  and  without  hypnotism,  in  the  hands 
of  a  thoughtful  physician  can  do  much  toward  bringing  about 
those  conditions  under  which  recovery  may  be  rendered  possible.1 

ILLUSTRATION  21. 

Suprapubic  Cystotomy. — The  operation  was  decided  on,  the 
patient  being  a  man  aged  about  40,  who  had  an  infection  pro- 
duced by  a  catheter  being  thrust  through  the  urethra  behind  the 
bladder  into  the  peritoneal  cavity,  an  abscess  being  formed,  ex- 
tending above  and  in  front  of  the  bladder.  It  was  the  "other 
fellow's  patient,"  and  I  had  been  invited  to  go  with  the  con- 
sulting surgeon  to  see  what  could  be  done  for  the  unfortunate. 
The  surgeon  said  to  the  sick  man,  already  in  a  suggestible  con- 
dition, due  to  his  anxiety  over  his  serious  case,  ' '  This  is  a  physician 
friend  of  mine,  and  he  will  give  you  chloroform  and  put  you  to 
sleep,  and  we  will  dp  the  right  thing  for  you.  Do  just  as  he  tells 
you,  and  he  will  take  good  care  of  you." 

With  a  piece  of  gauze  on  the  bottom  of  my  hand  and  with  ten 
drops  of  chloroform  on  it,  I  said  to  the  patient,  "Close  your  eyes, 
breathe  through  your  mouth,  and  think  of  going  to  sleep.  As 
you  inhale  this  chloroform  you  will  get  drowsy  and  sleepy,  and 
go  on  to  sleep  without  any  trouble."  I  then  exercised  sugges- 
tion on  him,  using  the  formula  described  in  Chapter  V  (Hypnotism 
Demonstrated)  to  induce  hypnosis. 

With  a  piece  of  cotton  saturated  with  water,  after  the  patient 
was  hypnotized,  I  gently  touched  the  area  to  be  operated  on,  say- 
ing to  him,  "All  feeling  is  going  away;  this  part  is  becoming 
perfectly  dead,  no  feeling  in  it  at  all,  and  by  the  time  I  count  ten 
it  will  be  perfectly  dead  and  without  feeling." 

In  the  midst  of  the  operation  the  surgeon  asked,  "How  much 
of  this  is  suggestion  and  how  much  is  chloroform?"  I  answered 
him  by  holding  the  man's  arm  up  and  suggesting  that  he  allow 


1  Three  years  have  elapsed  since  this  case  was  reported.  She  has  entirely  recov- 
ered, and  now  presents  a  normal  mind  and  healthy  body,  has  gained  twenty-five 
p.mnds  in  weight,  and  is  a  healthy,'  happy  young  woman. 


HYPNOTISM    THERAPEUTICALLY   APPLIED.  195 

it  to  remain  until  the  operation  was  completed.  We  afterward 
awakened  the  patient,  with  nerves  steady,  and  quiet,  and  strong,  as 
suggested  to  him,  and  he  stated  that  he  had  experienced  no  pain  and 
felt  much  better.  In  this  case  we  used  not  over  twenty  drops  of 
chloroform  by  actual  measurement. 

Always  tell  your  patient  how  he  will  feel  before  awakening  him. 
That  will  determine  his  feeling  after  he  is  hypnotized.  It  is  not 
only  what  you  do  and  what  you  say  that  brings  success,  but  the 
way  you  do  and  how  you  say  it.  This  is  true  of  the  use  of  sug- 
gestion both  with  and  without  hypnotism. 

In  reducing  dislocations,  setting  fractures,  opening  abscesses, 
sewing  up  incised  wounds,  and  numerous  other  conditions,  hyp- 
notic suggestion  is  applicable.  Yet,  so  much  depends  upon  the 
environment,  for  an  adverse  environment  produces  a  counter  in- 
fluence by  unconscious  suggestion  that  is  often  impossible  to 
overcome.  In  private  practice,  however,  we  have  an  ideal  con- 
dition for  the  application  of  suggestive  therapeutics.  It  is  here 
that  the  best  results  are  always  obtained,  for  there  is  a  closer 
personal  relation  between  the  physician  and  his  patient. 

ILLUSTRATION  22. 

Operation  for  Adenoids. — This  patient  was  a  little  girl  aged 
10,  with  adenoids  to  be  removed.  She  was  hypnotized,  and  the 
suggestion  given  that  when  the  doctor  examined  in  her  mouth 
and  back  of  her  throat  and  nose,  it  would  only  tickle  her  a  little, 
that  the  parts  back  there  were  dead,  had  no  feeling  in  them,  and 
that  when  I  said,  "Wake,"  she  would  awaken  laughing  and  see 
some  blood  come  out  of  her  nose  and  mouth.  The  operation 
was  done  by  a  well-known  specialist,  and  with  perfect  success. 
The  little  girl  did  not  shed  a  tear. 

ILLUSTRATION  23. 

Suggestion  in  Dental  Surgery.— A  young  man,  aged  24,  by  oc- 
cupation a  drug  clerk,  had  serious  valvular  lesions,  and  cocain, 
or  chloroform,  or  ether  was  positively  forbidden  by  his  physician. 


196  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

At  his  request  I  hypnotized  him  in  the  presence  of  three  well- 
known  physicians  and  surgeons,  and  two  large  molar  teeth  were 
extracted  without  pain,  and  he  was  less  nervous  after  the  opera- 
tion than  before  he  took  his  seat  in  the  chair.  Two  of  the  physi- 
cians examined  the  heart  before  and  after  the  operation,  and  re- 
marked upon  the  improved  nervous  condition.  After  inducing 
hypnosis  I  suggested  that  he  open  his  mouth,  and,  applying  a 
small  quantity  of  an  antiseptic  solution  upon  some  cotton  around 
his  tooth,  suggested  that  all  feeling  was  going  away,  that  his  gum, 
and  tooth,  and  jaw  were  becoming  perfectly  dead,  that  by  the 
time  I  counted  five  that  entire  side  of  his  face  would  have  no  feel- 
ing in  it,  and  that  the  dentist  could  extract  the  tooth  without  the 
patient  feeling  any  pain. 

To  use  hypnotism  or  suggestion  with  success  in  surgery  or 
dentistry,  you  must  have  the  confidence  of  your  patient.  In  fact, 
the  best  results  from  suggestive  therapeutics  in  all  classes  of 
practice  can  be  obtained  only  where  a  perfect  confidential  relation 
exists  between  the  patient  and  the  attending  physician.  For  that 
reason  suggestive  therapeutics  will  never  be  particularly  appli- 
cable to  general  hospital  work,  but  in  private  practice,  where  the 
physician  is  brought  into  close  relation  to  his  patient,  an  ideal  con- 
dition is  presented. 

ILLUSTRATION  24. 

Psychical  Impotency. — A  young  man  had  been  accused  by  a 
jealous  wife  of  worshiping  a  foreign  goddess.  This  he  strenuously 
denied.  He,  however,  on  one  occasion  walked  past  his  home  with 
the  lady  in  question  and  was  observed  by  his  suspecting  wife. 
Though  he  assured  her  that  his  being  with  her  on  the  occasion  was 
only  a  coincidence,  his  assurances  did  not  allay  his  wife's  sus- 
picions, and  she  then  and  there  demanded  that  he  prove  his 
fidelity  by  his  ability  to  perform  the  sexual  act.  Though  the  young 
man  was  innocent,  the  psychic  effect,  of  being  put  to  so  crucial  a 
test  so  suddenly  was  sufficient  to  completely  inhibit  his  ability  to 
meet  the  demands.  Then  the  exacting  wife  turned  with  double 
vehemence  upon  the  unfortunate  husband,  and  the  sense  impressions 


HYPNOTISM   THERAPEUTICALLY   APPLIED.  197 

or  suggestions  produced  by  her  declarations  that  she  had  proof 
positive  of  the  correctness  of  her  suspicions  rendered  the  poor 
fellow  impotent,  in  her  presence,  for  a  month. 

The  stability  of  his  home  was  in  jeopardy,  and  threats  of  abandon- 
ment were  made  by  the  wife,  who  felt  that  she  had  been  wronged. 
His  physician  sent  for  me,  and  my  treatment  for  the  young  man 
was  by  instruction  and  education  as  to  how  he  should  steer  him- 
self out  of  his  dilemma.  He  was  also  hypnotized,  and  special 
suggestions  were  given  to  combat  the  psychic  effect  of  the  sugges- 
tions that  had  so  completely  subdued  him.  This  was  on  Saturday, 
and  on  Monday  he  reported  that  the  psychic  atmosphere  of  his 
home  had  been  completely  changed  and  that  the  treatment  was  a 
decided  success. 

ILLUSTRATION  25. 

Insomnia  Treated  in  a  Unique  Manner. — "Doctor,  I  wish  you 
would  give  me  something  to  make  me  sleep  better  at  night,"  said 
the  wife  of  a  hard-working  man  upon  whom  the  cares  of  life  were 
pressing  heavily. 

' '  Why  can 't  you  sleep,  Mrs.  Blank  ? ' '  said  I. 

"Oh,  I  just  toss  and  roll  about  for  hours  and  hours,  and  last 
night  I  didn't  close  my  eyes  until  after  one  o'clock." 

This  lady  was  a  great  religious  character,  and  I  knew  this  was 
her  most  vulnerable  point  from  a  psychological  standpoint.  So  I 
asked  her  if  she  believed  that  if  two  people  agreed  regarding  any 
one  thing,  it  could  be  done  for  them.  "You  know  I  do,  Doctor," 
she  answered. 

"All  right,"  said  I.  "Let's  agree  that  you  are  going  to  go  to 
sleep  right  now."  I  was  standing  at  the  foot  of  her  bed,  and, 
looking  into  her  face  for  a  moment,  I  said  in  a  calm  monotone 
voice,  "Just  look  at  me  and  think  of  sleep.  As  you  do,  your  eyes 
will  become  heavy,  and  you  will  get  drowsy  and  sleepy,  and  go 
to  sleep.  Now,  close  your  eyes  lightly  and  go  to  sleep,  sleep,  sleep, 
sleep.  By  the  time  I  count  ten  you  will  be  fast  asleep — one,  two, 
three,  four,  five,  six,  seven,  eight,  nine,  ten,  and  now  you  are  asleep, 
fast  asleep." 

Then,  coming  up  to  her,  I  gently  soothed  her  forehead  with  a 


198  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

few  strokes  on  either  side  with  my  fingers.  "You  are  sleeping 
nicely;  having  a  calm,  refreshing  sleep.  Sleep  soundly  for  two 
hours  and  then  awaken.  Your  sleep  will  be  restful  and  refreshing. 
After  this  you  will  be  able  to  go  to  sleep  at  any  time  you  desire 
to  do  so.  Just  close  your  eyes  and  relax  every  muscle,  and  think 
of  sleep,  and  you  will  go  to  sleep  and  sleep  soundly  all  night,  and 
awake  feeling  refreshed  and  rested  every  morning.  You  will  drink 
water  freely  every  two  hours  from  morning  until  you  retire  at 
night.  You  will  enjoy  your  meals,  have  a  good  appetite,  find 
pleasure  in  your  work,  rest  when  you  get  tired,  enjoy  the  com- 
panionship of  your  husband,  and  children,  and  friends,  and  al- 
ways feel  happier  on  account  of  the  improved  condition  of  your 
health." 

Two  years  afterward  this  woman's  husband  reminded  me  of 
this  experience.  He  said  his  wife  had  slept  well  and  enjoyed  her 
meals,  had  no  more  headaches,  and  was  greatly  improved  in  every 
way.  "  Nothing  ever  did  her  so  much  good,  Doctor,  as  that  one 
visit  of  yours,  but  we  lost  our  baby  with  cholera  infantum  two 
months  ago  and  my  wife  is  'just  all  in,'  and  I  want  you  to  see 
her  again. ' '  This  was  on  a  passing  visit  to  my  home,  and  I  could 
not  see  his  wife  as  requested,  but  I  have  always  felt  that  I  missed 
a  great  pleasure  in  not  having  the  opportunity  to  infuse  into  her 
sad  life  some  of  my  own  strength  and  optimism  by  another  sug- 
gestive treatment. 

ILLUSTRATION  26. 

A  Psychoneurotic  Condition. — A  young  lady,  aged  22,  the 
beautiful  daughter  of  a  prominent  physician,  had  not  been  able  to 
eat  any  meat,  without  its  causing  gastric  disturbance,  since  the 
death  of  her  mother  two  years  before,  and  since  that  time  she  had 
been  nervous,  suffered  with  insomnia,  and  lost  considerable  in 
weight.  I  gave  her  two  suggestive  treatments,  having  first  secured 
a  suggestible  condition.  Two  weeks  later  she  reported  her  case, 
and  had  gained  in  weight,  slept  well  at  night,  ate  all  the  meat  she 
desired  without  the  slightest  inconvenience,  and  felt  better  and 
happier  in  every  way. 


HYPNOTISM    THERAPEUT1CALLY   APPLIED.  199 

ILLUSTRATION  27. 

Nausea  and  Vomiting  of  Pregnancy.— A  physician  once  stated 
to  me  frankly  that  he  had  no  confidence  in  anything  pertaining  to 
these  methods,  and  could  not  possibly  become  interested  in  a  sub- 
ject that  he  had  so  disregarded.  He  was  an  excellent  gentleman, 
but,  like  so  many  physicians  in  our  profession,  had  not  troubled 
himself  to  look  into  the  subject  of  psychotherapy. 

A  day  or  two  later  he  said  to  a  patient  of  his,  the  wife  of  a  lead- 
ing banker  in  his  city,  who  had  suffered  with  gravid  nausea  per- 
sistently for  several  days,  "If  you  don't  get  better,  I  will  bring  a 
physician  here  who  will  treat  you  by  hypnotic  suggestion." 

Her  mother,  who  was  present,  urged  that  he  do  so,  and  referred 
to  a  physician  who  had  relieved  her  brother,  the  Reverend  Blank, 
D.D.,  a  prominent  educator,  of  a  most  distressing  supraorbital 
neuralgia  after  no  benefit  had  been  obtained  from  other  methods 
of  treatment  for  over  two  weeks.  His  patient  also  urged  that  I  be 
called  in  to  see  her.  In  his  conveyance,  while  on  our  way  to  see 
this  patient,  I  asked  why  he  desired  to  use  a  method  in  which  he 
' '  had  absolutely  no  confidence, ' '  and  had  so  expressed  himself  only 
two  days  before,  when  he  related  to  me  the  circumstance  just  re- 
ferred to. 

' '  For  this  visit  she  is  my  patient  as  well  as  she  is  yours,  Doctor, ' ' 
said  I,  "and  I  expect  to  get  a  fine  result." 

The  preconceived  mental  attitude  of  your  patient  is  of  great 
psychic  significance  in  determining  the  results  of  any  kind  of 
therapeutic  measures.  I  had  this  lady's  confidence  before  I  ever 
saw  her,  and  this  was  an  ideal  relation. 

After  talking  with  her  for  a  few  minutes  I  turned  to  her  and 
said  I  was  glad  to  have  the  opportunity  of  demonstrating  to  Doctor 
Blank  the  efficacy  of  the  method  of  treatment  which  I  was  in- 
troducing to  physicians,  and  in  this  particular  case  it  would  be  a 
genuine  pleasure  for  her  sake,  as  well  as  for  my  own  and  Doctor 
Blank's. 

I  had  that  lady  hypnotized  or  in  a  suggestive  condition  before 
I  suggested  that  she  go  to  sleep,  yet  I  placed  her  in  a  deep  sub- 
conscious or  hypnotic  condition  and  made  appropriate  suggestions. 


200  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

She  was  allowed  to  sleep  twenty  minutes,  and  awoke  comfort- 
able; ate  some  bread  and  buttermilk,  as  I  suggested,  and,  as  she 
drank  it  down,  stopped  to  ask  her  mother  if  she  remembered  that 
she  went  to  the  refrigerator  upon  her  return  from  her  graduating 
exercises  four  years  before,  and  remarked  that  no  milk  had  ever 
tasted  so  nice  before  or  since  until  she  got  this  glass,  and  she  pro- 
ceeded to  drain  its  contents.  Her  comments  upon  that  glass  of 
buttermilk  reminded  me  of  how  I  relished  nice  buttermilk  when  a 
boy  on  the  farm,  and  I  asked  for  a  glass  and  drank  to  her  health, 
and  it  was  fine,  too.  I  hypnotized  my  patient,  but  got  hypnotized 
myself  into  drinking  a  glass  of  milk  before  I  left  the  room. 

That  lady  ate  her  evening  meal,  slept  well  that  night,  enjoyed 
her  breakfast,  and  was  out  driving  the  next  day.  A  year  later 
her  mother  reported  to  me  that  she  went  for  several  weeks  without 
inconvenience,  but  after  that  the  destruction  of  some  choice  flowers 
by  a  stupid  gardener  brought  on  the  return  of  her  trouble,  but 
"it  was  never  so  bad." 

ILLUSTRATION  28. 

Supraorbital  Neuralgia. — The  case  of  the  prominent  educator 
mentioned  in  illustration  27,  who  had  supraorbital  neuralgia,  was  an 
interesting  one,  and  is  worth  relating  here,  as  it  brings  out  some 
important  features  in  connection  with  the  application  of  sugges- 
tive-therapeutics, and  at  the  same  time  clears  up  some  misappre- 
hensions in  regard  to  hypnotism  and  its  application  to  the  higher 
grades  of  intelligence.  The  gentleman  in  question  was  the  presi- 
dent of  a  well-known  college  in  his  state.  When  I  met  him  he 
apologized  for  his  "stupidity,"  and  explained  that  his  case  had 
resisted  all  treatment  for  two  weeks  and  was  getting  the  best  of 
him.  He  said  that  25  grains  of  quinin  daily  and  214-grain  doses 
of  morphin  sulphate  had  been  his  dose  for  the  past  several  days, 
besides  using  static  electricity,  hot  applications,  different  standard 
neuralgic  remedies,  and  all  the  modern  "antis." 

"Let  me  relieve  you  by  suggestion,  Doctor,"  said  I. 

"What,  do  you  mean  to  hypnotize  me?"  he  replied,  somewhat 
astonished. 


HYPNOTISM    THERAPEUTIC  ALLY   APPLIED.  201 

' '  Yes,  get  you  to  take  a  suggestion. ' ' 

"But  I  never  thought  I  could  be  hypnotized,"  said  he. 

"Only  weak-minded  persons  can  not  be  hypnotized,  can  not  be 
induced  to  execute  an  idea  or  series  of  ideas,  for  the  lack  of  ability 
to  exercise  self-control,  and  certainly  one  can  not  hypnotize  a 
strong-minded  person  who  does  not  care  to  be  hypnotized.  Of 
course,  you  belong  to  the  latter  class,  but,  if  you  will  consent,  I  will 
show  you  what  can  be  done  for  you." 

"My  dear  sir,"  replied  he,  "I  will  consent  to  anything  that 
even  holds  out  a  hope  of  relief."  We  very  promptly  arranged  to 
give  him  the  treatment,  and  I  left  him  in  a  condition  supposed 
to  be  sleep,  having  made  appropriate  suggestions. 

Ten  days  later  I  saw  him  again,  and  he  was  quick  to  thank  me 
for  the  very  prompt  and  efficacious  relief  given  him  by  the  treat- 
ment, and  said  he  had  not  suffered  one  iota  from  that  condition 
since  I  left  him.  "But,  Doctor,"  said  he,  "I  don't  think  I  was 
asleep.  I  wanted  to  tell  you  that  I  was  easy  before  you  left,  but 
promised  to  lie  still  in  the  condition  as  you  requested!" 

That  was  just  where  he  consented  to  act  intelligently  upon  and 
execute  an  idea,  or  take  my  suggestion.  All  that  is  necessary  is 
the  intelligent  co-operation  of  the  patient.  So  I  repeat  again,  for 
I  desire  to  drive  this  point  home,  that  hypnotism  is  nothing  more 
or  less  than  getting  an  individual  to  act  upon  an  idea  or  series  of 
ideas,  either  consciously  or  subconsciously. 

Get  out  of  your  mind  anything  you  ever  saw  on  the  stage  in 
exhibition  of  the  amusement  features  of  hypnotism.  Even  there, 
however,  you  see  an  illustration  of  the  subject  under  discussion. 
Boys  like  fun ;  it  is  in  their  line — in  accordance  with  their  thought 
and  conduct — and  they  go  on  the  stage  having  perhaps  uncon- 
sciously decided  to  act  upon  or  execute  any  idea  or  series  of  ideas 
given  by  the  hypnotist.  Your  patient  does  the  same  thing  when 
he  co-operates  with  you  in  any  ordinary  method  of  treatment. 

ILLUSTRATION  29. 

Alcoholism  and  its  Accompanying  Neuroses. — Once,  in  one  of 
our  great  American  cities,  a  well-known  physician  telephoned  me 


202  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

to  learn  what  I  could  do  with  a  case  of  acute  alcoholism.  I  re- 
plied that  I  had  good  results  in  my  private  practice  in  such  cases, 
but  that  it  all  depended  upon  the  character  of  the  individual. 

He  wanted  me  to  come  at  once  to  treat  a  patient  of  his  who  had 
been  drinking  too  freely  for  a  week  or  more,  had  taken  not 
less  than  fifteen  drinks  that  day,  but  was  anxious  to  quit.  His 
patient  was  a  fine  man,  who  proved  afterward  to  be  one  of  the 
most  delightful  men  I  ever  met,  but  he  had  his  vulnerable  point 
and  his  friends  had  led  him  too  far. 

If  I  can  talk  to  an  individual  for  a  few  minutes,  I  feel  the 
personality  of  the  man  sufficiently  to  approach  him  with  a  degree 
of  certainty  or  with  uncertainty  regarding  results.  I  suppose 
this  is  acquired  by  experience.  Anyway,  I  was  not  in  this  gentle- 
man 's  presence  five  minutes  before  I  said  to  his  physician,  ' '  Doctor, 
we  are  going  to  get  along  all  right.  I  am  ready  to  proceed  with 
the  treatment."  The  patient,  a  business  man  and  capitalist,  aged 
about  48,  was  nervous,  emotional,  irritable,  miserable,  and  had 
suffered  with  insomnia,  anorexia,  etc.,  and  just  felt  that  something 
had  to  be  done  for  him.  Even  in  the  condition  described  the 
man  was  a  gentleman,  showed  that  he  had  a  great  soul  in  him,  and 
I  could  feel  that  I  had  in  him  the  elements  of  a  man  to  use  in  his 
own  behalf,  which  he,  from  inability  to  express  the  supreme  function 
of  consciousness — the  will — had  failed  to  use  for  himself. 

I  induced  the  suggestive  state,  and  allowed  him  to  sleep  for 
three  hours,  giving  him  a  glass  of  water  at  intervals  of  an  hour 
apart  without  arousing  him  from  the  existing  state  of  suggesti- 
bility. 

He  was  then  awakened  and  advised  to  take  a  walk  for  half  an 
hour  or  more  with  his  wife,  a  bowl  of  chicken  broth  being  ordered 
in  the  meantime.  In  the  suggestive  state  I  had  made  such  sug- 
gestions as  would  quiet  nervousness,  relieve  soreness  in  the  epi- 
gastric region,  restore  self-confidence,  produce  an  antipathy  or 
hatred  for  whisky,  and  arouse  the  highest  element  of  selfhood 
into  action. 

It  was  also  suggested  that  after  his  walk  he  would  eat  a  bowl 
of  chicken  broth,  and  then  go  to  bed  and  at  once  go  sound  asleep ; 
that  he  would  sleep  soundly  all  night,  and  that,  if  he  became  rest- 


HYPNOTISM    THERAPEUTICALLY   APPLIED.  203 

less  during  the  night,  his  wife  would  give  him  a  glass  of  water 
and  he  would  go  sound  asleep  again.  I  impressed  on  him  that 
he  would  not  wake  until  nine  o'clock  the  next  day,  at  which 
time  his  wife  would  awaken  him.  Then,  as  has  been  my  custom, 
I  told  him  he  would  feel  rested,  refreshed,  self-sufficient,  and  not 
want  whisky  any  more. 

At  eleven  o'clock  the  next  day  his  wife  telephoned  me,  in  re- 
sponse to  an  inquiry  about  his  condition,  using  these  words:  "Oh, 
Doctor,  he  is  doing  beautifully.  He  slept  all  night  long,  taking 
wrater  twice,  and  looks  so  calm  and  self-poised  this  morning.  He 
says  he  does  not  want  any  more  whisky,  and  I  never  saw  him  look 
and  talk  like  this  after  a  spree  before." 

I  saw  him  only  twice  more,  and  talked  to  him  face  to  face  as 
friend  with  friend.  Several  weeks  later,  when  I  was  ready  to 
leave  that  city,  he  came  to  my  room  at  the  hotel,  again  expressing 
his  thanks,  and,  like  the  real  man  that  he  was,  said,  "Doctor, 
you  have  helped  me  more  than  any  one  ever  did  in  my  whole  life. 
You  have  given  me  a  new  conception  of  myself,  and  made  me  feel 
in  regard  to  myself  as  I  never  felt  before." 

I  had  awakened  in  him  a  higher  self-consciousness  or  an  ap- 
preciation of  a  higher  selfhood,  and  the  memory  that  I  have  of 
hundreds  and  hundreds  of  such  experiences  is  to  me  one  of  life's 
greatest  rewards. 

Conversion  is  suggestion  just  disguised, 
The  new  man  is  the  old  man  hypnotized. 

It  is  a  great  thing  to  have  confidence  in  human  beings;  faith 
in  humanity  is  faith  in  God;  it  is  to  recognize  the  divine  in 
human  life. 

The  individual  or  individuals  who  have  helped  me  the  most 
in  life  have  been  those  who  were  able  to  discover  the  germination 
of  a  higher  selfhood  as  an  actuating  impulse  in  my  own  life  and 
conduct. 

ILLUSTRATION  31. 

Pulmonary  Tuberculosis.— In  a  southern  town  a  few  years  ago 
the  thermometer  suddenly  dropped  and  the  weather  was  uncom- 


204  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

fortably  cold.  At  the  hotel  a  lady  from  a  different  state,  in  a 
well-advanced  stage  of  pulmonary  tuberculosis,  was  visiting. 
Cough,  cough,  cough  was  all  that  she  could  do.  Her  weakness 
aroused  my  sympathy,  and  I  said  to  her:  "Mrs.  Blank,  I  can 
help  you  a  great  deal  by  suggestion,  and  would  be  glad  to  do  so 
while  I  am  here  for  the  pleasure  I  should  get  out  of  seeing  you 
benefited. ' ' 

"Why,  Doctor  Munro,  I  have  consumption.  Pray,  how  could 
hypnotism  help  me?  This  is  no  imaginary  disease." 

"Mrs.  Blank,  you  are  evidently  very  nervous.  I  heard  you  say 
you  did  not  sleep  two  hours  in  all  last  night,  and  I  noticed  that 
you  ate  practically  no  breakfast  this  morning." 

"Yes,"  she  replied,  "I  am  so  weak  and  nervous  I  can  scarcely 
walk.  This  bandage  on  my  hand  is  the  result  of  an  injury  re- 
ceived from  a  fall  yesterday.  No,  I  can  not  eat  or  sleep,  and  this 
miserable  weather  is  terrible  on  me." 

She  had  a  forlorn,  downcast  look,  but  I  honestly  believed  that 
I  could  benefit  her. 

"Mrs.  Blank,"  said  I,  "by  suggestion  in  the  hypnotic  state 
I  can  quiet  that  irritability  of  your  nervous  system,  give  you  a 
good,  refreshing  night's  sleep,  and  yet  you  can  relieve  yourself 
by  expectorating  when  necessary  in  your  sleep.  Getting  a  good 
night's  rest,  you  will  conserve  your  energies  and  will  awaken  with 
a  good  appetite  and  strong,  quiet  nerves.  Then,  as  you  eat  more, 
sleep  better,  and  get  stronger,  I  will  get  you  to  breathe  deeper 
and  take  in  more  oxygen.  The  increased  amount  of  air  will  mean 
much  to  your  general  health,  for  oxygen  is  a  food  that  many 
people  do  not  take  in  sufficient  quantities.  Along  with  the  in- 
fluence of  more  oxygen  upon  all  bodily  functions  will  be  an  in- 
crease in  elimination,  both  of  carbon  dioxide  from  your  lungs 
and  from  a  freer  activity  of  all  bodily  functions. 

"In  your  particular  case  I  have  confidence  in  the  benefit  to  be 
derived  from  deep  breathing  in  other  ways.  Increased  function 
means  increased  blood  supply,  and  by  breathing  deeper  your  lung 
substance  will  be  better  nourished  and  its  resistive  powers  in- 
creased, and  your  chances  to  recover  strengthened  ten  to  one  as 
compared  with  the  present.  There  are  other  ways  that  sug- 


HYPNOTISM    THERAPEUT1CALLY   APPLIED.  205 

gestion  would  prove  of  benefit,  but,  though  you  could  not  under- 
stand if  I  attempted  to  explain  them  to  you,  I  feel  warranted 
in  saying  that  I  know  you  will  be  benefited  to  a  remarkable 
degree. ' ' 

''Doctor  Munro,  I  am  ready  whenever  you  are,  and  as  often  as 
you  see  fit  to  give  this  treatment,"  she  replied. 

Calling  her  friend,  Miss  Blank,  into  a  room  to  be  present  at  the 
time  of  the  administration  of  this  treatment,  I  proceeded  to  put 
her  into  a  condition  of  suggestibility  and  gave  suggestions  to  quiet 
her  nervousness,  restore  more  plentiful  and  refreshing  sleep,  inflate 
the  lungs,  and,  above  all,  to  stir  all  latent  psychic  activities  into 
action,  to  increase  her  resistive  powers,  etc. 

This  young  lady  present  told  me  that  when  she  was  a  school- 
girl Mrs.  Blank  was  a  fine  singer  and  had  a  lovely  voice.  So  at 
another  time,  while  she  was  hypnotized,  I  gave  her  a  suggestion 
that  she  was  again  a  schoolgirl,  and  was  going  to  sing  while  her 
friend  furnished  the  music.  The  song  was  "The  Angel's  Sere- 
nade, ' '  and  she  sang,  too.  She  reached  the  highest  note  in  ' '  Hosan- 
nah  in  the  highest,  Hosannah  to  his  name." 

I  then  appreciated,  as  I  had  never  done  before  with  any  patient, 
what  I  had  done  for  her.  All  that  I  did  was  out  of  kindness 
and  sympathy,  but  with  optimism  and  faith.  There  was  no  money 
in  this  case.  There  was  no  selfish  motive  in  it. 

After  four  days  she  had  been  sleeping,  eating,  drinking,  exer- 
cising, and  singing  as  she  had  not  before  in  years.  Six  weeks  later 
I  learned  indirectly  from  her  husband  in  another  town  in  that 
state  that  she  had  gained  six  pounds,  and  was  rapidly  improv- 
ing every  day. 

When  I  left  the  town  where  I  treated  this  lady  she  thanked  me 
sincerely,  and  gave  me  a  note  which  she  had  prepared  to  send 
to  me  at  the  train  by  the  porter.  In  this  she  expressed  her 
gratitude  that  she  had  received  through  me  the  ability  to  eat 
and  sleep,  for  the  relief  from  pain,  nervousness,  etc.,  and  ended 
by  saying,  "You  have  put  into  my  life  a  bit  of  blue  where  all 
before  was  smoke  and  cloud." 

Four  years  later  this  lady  was  enjoying  life  and  much  improved 
in  health. 


206  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

1  shall  hope  that  every  reader  of  these  pages  may  do  as  much 
for  many  individuals  who  do  not  need  medicine,  but  do  need  to 
have  aroused  in  them  a  self-consciousness  of  dormant  potentialities 
awaiting  utilization. 


CHAPTER  X. 
RATIONAL   THERAPEUTICS  IN  EVERY-DAY  PRACTICE. 

The  Rationale  of  Psychotherapy.— The  foundation  of  rational 
therapeutics  is  in  pathology,  etiology,  and  diagnosis.  We  must 
get  at  the  cause  of  a  malady  before  we  can  give  the  patient  in- 
telligent treatment.  After  we  have  detected  and  eliminated  the 
cause,  we  have  made  such  rapid  progress  in  the  treatment  of  the 
patient  that  we  are  rapidly  accomplishing  a  cure.  It  is  already 
in  sight.  The  true  mission  of  the  physician  is  to  lead  the  patient 
to  the  goal  where  he  can  be  independent  of  him.  The  modern 
treatment  of  tuberculosis  has  illustrated  what  can  be  done  for  the 
patient  by  instruction  in  the  art  of  living,  so  as  to  maintain  the 
highest  degree  of  resistive  power  in  the  cells  of  his  organism,  en- 
abling them  to  overcome  the  ravages  of  the  tubercle  bacillus,  and, 
as  the  result  of  the  application  of  rational,  hygienic,  dietetic,  and 
educational  measures,  this  disease  is  lessening  every  year.  The 
true  physician  holds  no  secrets  of  his  profession  from  his  patients. 
He  gives  them  the  benefit  of  all  his  knowledge.  He  strives  to  make 
his  patient,  who  is  his  pupil,  perfect  in  health,  even  as  himself. 

This  attitude  on  the  part  of  the  physician  toward  his  patient 
marks  the  most  important  step  in  the  evolutionary  progress  of 
medicine.  Most  of  the  human  ills  which  we  are  called  upon  to  treat 
are  due  to  violations  of  right  living.  The  restoration  of  the  patient 
to  habits  of  normal  living  constitutes  the  highest  scientific  treat- 
ment— it  offers  cure  for  the  present  and  prevention  for  the  future. 
The  profession  of  medicine  is  outgrowing  the  mere  function  of 
prescribing  drugs,  and  is  rapidly  taking  its  place  as  the  science 
of  sanitation,  dietetics,  education,  and  hygiene.  The  profession  of 
medicine  began  in  its  infancy  by  efforts  to  make  the  sick  well, 
but  to  that  has  been  added  the  effort  to  secure  and  maintain  the 

207 


208  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

health  of  the  patient.  Such  is  the  function  of  rational  psycho- 
therapy. 

Good  health — a  sane  mind  and  a  strong  body — is  an  acquire- 
ment. It  must  be  earned  by  the  individual  by  his  own  personal 
efforts,  but  the  average  individual  has  not  evolved  sufficient  in- 
telligence to  be  willing  to  pay  the  price  for  detailed  instruction  in 
the  way  to  acquire  and  maintain  a  condition  of  perfect  health.  He 
prefers  to  pay  a  man  who  is  willing  to  dope  him  on  drugs,  carve 
his  body,  and  allow  him  to  live  in  open  violation  to  the  known 
laws  of  health.  Some  are  unwilling  to  pay  the  price  in  personal 
effort  to  achieve  the  coveted  goal.  They  prefer  to  remain  victims 
of  irrational  living,  even  positively  refusing  to  conform  their  lives 
to  the  regimen  outlined  for  their  restoration  and  preservation. 

Nature's  laws  are  infallible.  They  reap  as  they  sow,  and  the 
harvest  is  measured  by  the  increase  in  new-dug  graves,  by  the 
constantly  increasing  number  of  inmates  in  our  insane  asylums, 
and  by  the  weak  bodies  and  imperfect  nervous  organizations  every- 
where in  evidence.  These  cases  are  amenable  to  treatment  by 
rational  therapeutics,  as  is  being  illustrated  by  the  every-day  prac- 
tice of  the  physician  who  dares  exercise  the  intelligence  and  courage 
to  make  employment  of  such  measures  as  secure  for  the  patient 
conformity  to  the  physiological  conditions  whereby  health  may  be 
acquired  and  maintained.  But  much  depends  upon  the  intelligent 
co-operation  of  the  patient.  Some  there  are  who  are  too  stupid 
to  exercise  their  potentialities  in  normal  lines  of  thought  and 
action  whereby  results  can  be  obtained,  even  after  detailed  instruc- 
tion in  hygiene,  dietetics,  exercise,  and  normal  living  has  been 
given  them.  These  constitute  the  incompetents,  which  will  ever 
be  a  burden  upon  society,  but  they  are  being  reduced  just  in  pro- 
portion as  the  physician  can  induce  them  to  follow  sane,  rational, 
normal  methods  of  thought  and  action. 

Here  is  a  physician  occupying  the  chair  of  Principles  and  Practice 
of  Medicine  in  one  of  our  medical  universities.  He  says  to  me: 
"Munro,  you  are  on  the  right  track.  You  are  teaching  what  we 
all  must  recognize  as  the  truth — as  sane,  sound,  rational,  common 
sense,  practical  knowledge.  You  are  not  playing  to  the  galleries — 
you  are  making  an  appeal  to  the  intelligence  and  brains  of  the 


RATIONAL   THERAPEUTICS   IN   EVERY-DAY    PRACTICE.  209 

profession,  but  the  question  is,  are  all  its  members  endowed  with 
that  unselfish,  broad,  altruistic  spirit  sufficient  to  utilize  and  ap- 
propriate the  measures  you  are  advocating?" 

The  cases  here  cited  will  illustrate  the  value  of  the  measures  out- 
lined as  applied  to  a  class  of  cases  where  the  methods  in  general 
use  had  proven  inadequate.  The  strongest  argument  in  favor  of 
any  method  of  treatment  is  the  practical  results  that  accrue  from  its 
administration. 

ILLUSTRATION  1. 

This  patient  was  referred  to  me  by  a  physician  of  this  city. 
No  less  than  seven  college  professors,  east  and  west,  figured 
in  the  treatment  of  this  case.  No  less  than  twenty-one  physicians, 
among  them  surgeons,  gynecologists,  neurologists,  etc.,  had  exhausted 
their  resources  in  vain  endeavor  to  benefit  this  patient.  She  was 
a  young  woman  who  gave  birth  to  a  child,  and  excessive  hemorrhage 
left  her  very  much  exsanguinated  and  weakened.  By  the  time 
she  was  getting  to  a  normal  condition  again  she  had  an  acute 
attack  of  salpingitis  and  a  year  later  was  operated  on.  A  large 
pus  tube  was  removed,  together  with  a  badly  diseased  ovary.  She 
then  began  to  have  attacks  of  migraine,  which  steadily  increased 
in  frequency  and  severity  for  four  or  five  years  after  this  opera- 
tion. Then  her  uterus  was  anchored,  her  appendix  removed,  and 
the  remaining  ovary  resected. 

When  I  saw  her  she  had  been  ill  for  ten  years,  during  seven  of 
which  she  had  been  a  migraine  sufferer,  and  for  relief  of  the 
attacks  morphin  had  been  employed.  At  the  time  I  saw  her  she 
had  been  taking  morphin  two  or  three  times  a  day  for  five  months, 
with  no  let-up  in  her  headache.  She  was  a  despondent,  miserable, 
pessimistic,  blue  human  being,  with  the  loss  possibly  of  every  hope 
in  life.  Her  physician  induced  me  to  try  psychotherapeutic 
measures  in  her  case,  and  I  want  to  tell  you  that  I  took  hold 
of  that  patient  with  a  strong  impression  that  I  could  not  benefit 
her.  I  made  no  promises,  except  to  do  my  best.  She  had  had 
such  marked  pathological  alterations  in  her  neuron  elements  that 
I  did  not  believe  that  their  function  could  be  restored. 

After  employing  psychotherapeutic  measures  for  two  months,  she 


210  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

entirely  and  completely  gave  up  the  morphin,  and  at  the  end  of 
two  more  months  she  had  gained  fifteen  pounds  in  weight;  and 
now  that  woman  is  well,  comfortable,  optimistic,  and  happy,  and  no 
longer  the  miserable,  despondent  being  that  she  was  before  the 
employment  of  psychotherapeutic  measures. 

The  measures  employed  in  the  treatment  of  this  case  consisted 
of  physical  education,  prophylactic  education,  suggestion  with  and 
without  hypnosis,  instruction  in  diet,  hydrotherapy,  and  gymnastics. 
Among  the  methods  included  in  treatment  by  "suggestion"  was 
the  psychoanalytic  method  devised  by  Freud,  of  Vienna,  which  is 
but  the  employment  of  suggestion  pure  and  simple. 

ILLUSTRATION  2. 

Female,  aged  33;  by  occupation  a  stenographer.  Was  suffering 
from  insomnia,  headaches,  constipation,  and  obsessions,  besides  a 
functional  disturbance  of  the  stomach.  For  a  long  while  she  had 
vomited  most  of  her  meals  as  soon  as  she  finished  eating  them. 
Appendix  had  been  removed,  stomach  had  been  washed  out  for  a 
long  while,  and  electrotherapeutics,  hydrotherapy,  massage,  and 
drugs  had  been  employed  ad  nauseam.  The  diagnoses  given  her 
complication  were  legion. 

I  told  this  patient  that  I  would  admit  that  she  had  all  the 
diseases  that  she  had  been  taught  to  believe  she  had,  provided 
she  would  co-operate  with  me  in  a  rational  regimen  to  become 
a  well,  strong,  healthful  individual.  She  was  greatly  emaciated, 
discouraged,  and  despondent,  but  co-operated  intelligently.  After 
treatment  for  two  months  she  had  gained  twenty-three  pounds 
in  weight,  and  had  been  sleeping  soundly  for  six  weeks;  had  a 
good  appetite,  retained  her  food  from  the  first  treatment  by  hyp- 
notic suggestion,  was  no  longer  annoyed  by  obsessions,  and  for  more 
than  a  year  has  been  at  her  work,  with  no  return  of  her  symptoms. 

The  treatment  followed  was  the  daily  employment  of  hyp- 
notic suggestion  for  a  month  and  twice  a  week  for  the  second 
month,  and  instruction  in  diet,  exercise,  gymnastics,  hygiene,  and 
sanitation.  She  left  for  her  home  in  a  distant  state  well  equipped 
with  a  sound  philosophy  of  life,  as  well  as  with  a  well,  normal 
body. 


RATIONAL   THERAPEUTICS   IN   EVERY-DAY    PRACTICE.  211 

ILLUSTRATION  3. 

Male,  aged  54;  by  occupation  a  farmer;  mother  had  committed 
suicide.  He  was  psychasthenic,  suffering  from  insomnia,  obses- 
sions, constipation,  and  indigestion;  was  emaciated  physically,  and 
had  apparently  lost  interest  in  everything  pertaining  to  life,  ex- 
cept the  study  of  his  own  symptoms.  This  man  was  so  weak 
physically  that  he  could  hardly  stand  a  walk  of  five  blocks  without 
appearing  exhausted. 

After  two  months'  treatment  by  hypnotic  suggestion,  and  by  in- 
struction on  almost  every  line  or  phase  of  life,  as  well  as  by  the 
enforcement  of  exercise,  gymnastics,  and  instruction  in  a  sound 
mental  and  physical  hygiene  and  dietetic  regimen,  this  patient  went 
home  comparatively  self-reliant,  physically  strong,  capacitated  to 
take  a  brisk  walk  of  eight  miles,  run  a  foot  race,  play  ball,  or 
do  anything  incident  to  the  life  of  the  ordinary  farmer. 

Previous  to  treatment  by  me  he  had  been  treated  by  neurologists, 
stomach  specialists,  electrotherapeutists,  and  had  also  had  his  ap- 
pendix removed,  having  been  informed  that  the  disease  of  this 
organ  was  responsible  for  all  of  his  symptoms.  Up  to  one  year 
after  treatment,  when  he  was  last  heard  from,  he  had  attended  to 
his  usual  duties,  and  was  comfortable  and  happy. 

ILLUSTRATION  4. 

Female,  aged  41 ;  single.  Had  suffered  more  or  less  from  utero- 
ovarian  disease  for  many  years,  and  two  years  previous  to  fall- 
ing under  my  care  had  undergone  operation,  having  had  her 
uterus,  ovaries,  and  large  fibroids  removed,  since  which  she  had 
suffered  with  headaches,  constipation,  insomnia,  and  indigestion. 
She  was  psychasthenic  and  extremely  emaciated.  After  one 
month's  treatment  by  the  method  employed  in  the  foregoing  cases 
she  was  eating,  exercising,  and  sleeping,  and  had  gained  several 
pounds  in  weight.  She  went  away  contrary  to  my  advice,  as  she 
could  not  conveniently  remain  longer  under  my  care,  but  con- 
tinued to  improve  for  two  months,  after  which  she  experienced  a 
return  of  some  of  her  former  symptoms,  and  my  advice  was  sought 


212  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

in  the  selection  of  a  medical  adviser  in  a  neighboring  city.  Three 
or  four  months'  continuous  treatment  of  this  patient  would  un- 
doubtedly have  prepared  her  for  meeting  the  exigencies  of  life 
and  to  maintain  a  condition  of  reasonably  good  health. 

ILLUSTRATION  5. 

Male,  aged  48;  by  occupation  a  farmer;  had  a  sister  who  died 
of  epilepsy  and  an  aunt  who  committed  suicide.  For  two  years  he 
had  labored  under  the  delusion  that  he  was  being  watched  by  detect- 
ives, and  suffered  from  insomnia,  constipation,  anorexia,  and 
headaches.  He  was  psychasthenic  and  weak.  He  had  sought  treat- 
ment from  various  sources,  and  was  sent  to  me  by  a  well-known 
western  surgeon.  Most  of  the  physicians  whom  he  consulted  told 
him  that  there  was  nothing  the  matter  with  him,  and  this  only 
added  to  his  depression,  which  was  extreme.  I  informed  him  that 
he  was  a  sick  man  and  needed  treatment,  but  that  the  employ- 
ment of  medicine,  or  electricity,  or  massage,  which  had  been  em- 
ployed by  other  physicians,  was  not  applicable  in  his  case. 

After  two  months  had  elapsed,  during  which  time  he  had  visited 
my  office  daily  for  treatment,  advice,  instruction,  and  education, 
he  went  home  a  sane,  happy,  self-reliant  man,  free  from  all  his 
symptoms.  Fourteen  months  later  he  dropped  in  to  see  me — hale, 
hearty,  and  happy — and  informed  me  that  had  I  "condemned  him, 
as  had  the  others,  he  would  be  in  his  grave. ' '  He  had  gained  more 
than  thirty  pounds  in  weight,  and  was  the  picture  of  strength  and 
optimism. 

ILLUSTRATION  6. 

Female,  aged  42 ;  married ;  no  children ;  height,  5  feet  6l/2  inches ; 
weight  87%  pounds.  Menstruation  had  ceased  ten  years  ago. 
Was  neurasthenic,  psychasthenic,  and  extremely  despondent.  Had 
frequently  threatened  self-destruction.  Her  other  symptoms  were 
those  of  anorexia,  insomnia,  constipation,  and  general  psychic  and 
physical  weakness.  I  made  no  promise  to  the  husband  of  this 
patient,  who  accompanied  her  from  a  distant  state,  but  stated  that 
I  would  do  my  best  for  her. 


RATIONAL   THERAPEUTICS   IN   EVERY-DAY   PRACTICE.  213 

She  returned  home  after  a  month,  having  gained  five  pounds  in 
weight,  had  good  appetite,  and  was  sleeping  fairly  well ;  one  month 
later  wrote  me  that  she  had  gained  four  more  pounds  in  weight, 
and  was  finding  a  comfort  and  pleasure  in  life  which  she  had 
not  experienced  in  many  years. 


ILLUSTRATION  7. 

Female,  aged  34;  single.  This  patient  had  all  the  classic 
symptoms  of  grand  mal  and  had  been  the  patient  of  several  of  the 
most  distinguished  neurologists  that  adorn  the  list  of  the  American 
profession.  The  diagnosis  given  by  them  was  that  of  grand  mal, 
and  by  them  all  the  bromids  were  employed. 

The  history  of  the  malady  dated  back  twenty-five  years.  She  had 
all  the  characteristics  of  an  overindulged  child  and  a  very  much 
underdeveloped  personality.  Was  at  first  almost  unmanageable,  re- 
fusing positively  to  co-operate  in  the  measures  advised.  Sug- 
gestions given  in  the  hypnotic  state  were  carried  out,  and  in  this 
way  she  was  induced  to  conform  to  the  dietetic  and  hygienic 
measures  outlined.  At  first  her  seizures  occurred  as  often  as  every 
ten  days  or  twice  per  month,  and  two  or  three  hard  seizures  were 
followed  by  lighter  attacks.  After  treatment  for  nine  months  she 
had  gone  three  months  entirely  free  from  attacks,  exhibited  a 
markedly  changed  personality,  was  comparatively  pleasant  and 
agreeable,  and  had  acquired  habits  that  were  little  short  of  the 
normal  individual. 

The  value  of  functional  exercises,  education,  purposeful  endeavor 
on  the  part  of  the  patient,  and  a  sane  dietetic  and  hygienic  regimen 
in  this  class  of  patients,  to  qualify  them  for  using  the  normal 
mechanisms  of  the  nervous  system  as  a  means  of  controlling  the 
function  of  dissociated  complexes,  causing  the  convulsive  seizures, 
are  beyond  question.  Hypnotic  suggestion,  as  a  means  of  securing 
the  co-operation  of  this  patient,  was  of  unmistakable  value. 

Spiller  and  Oppenheim  have  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  many 
cases  exist  that  have  heretofore  been  diagnosticated  epilepsy  or 
hysteria  which  bear  not  the  stigma  of  either.  Just  in  proportion 
as  rational  psyehotherapeutic  measures  are  employed  in  the  treat- 


214  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

merit  of  this  class  of  cases  are  we  finding  out  that  psychasthenic 
attacks  resembling  epilepsy  are  amenable  to  treatment,  and  the 
number  of  "epileptics"  will  decrease  just  in  proportion  as  correct 
treatment  is  employed.  The  value  of  psychotherapeutic  measures 
in  the  treatment  of  true  epilepsy  has  not  as  yet  been  definitely  de- 
termined. There  can  be  no  question  of  the  value  of  such  measures 
in  the  development  of  the  normal  potentialities  or  nervous 
mechanisms  of  such  cases,  which  have  for  so  long  a  time  been  con- 
sidered hopeless.  Time,  persistence,  and  patience  are  necessary  in 
the  treatment  of  such  cases,  but  the  beneficial  results  to  the  patient 
are  highly  satisfactory. 

ILLUSTRATION  8. 

Male,  aged  40;  highly  neuropathic  constitution.  After  a  siege 
of  domestic  quarrels,  resulting  in  mental  and  nervous  derange- 
ments— insomnia,  constipation,  and  hysterical  manifestations — was, 
by  order  of  his  physician,  fastened  with  restraint  apparatus  and 
taken  to  a  hospital,  where  he  was  kept  in  a  room  with  iron  bars 
and  dosed  upon  hypnotics  for  four  days,  but  with  practically  no 
improvement  in  his  symptoms,  when  he  was  brought  to  my  office 
for  the  purpose  of  examination,  with  the  expressed  wish  that  I 
treat  him,  under  the  care  of  a  nurse,  at  a  local  hospital. 

After  spending  an  hour  with  my  patient,  in  which  time  I  had 
succeeded  in  gaining  his  absolute  confidence,  I  informed  those  in 
care  of  him  that  he  needed  the  assistance  of  a  friend  as  well  as 
a  physician,  and  assured  the  patient  that  I  would  take  his  part 
and  give  him  all  the  necessary  assistance  without  confinement  in  a 
hospital.  He  agreed  to  acquiesce  in  my  regimen  for  the  ameliora- 
tion and  cure  of  his  condition,  and,  after  a  confidential  talk  to  him 
alone  for  twenty  minutes,  I  instructed  him  to  go  home  and  re- 
turn to  my  office  daily  for  treatment.  After  treatment  for  ten 
days  he  returned  to  his  work,  and  up  to  six  months  afterward, 
when  he  last  reported,  had  experienced  no  return  of  his  symptoms. 

For  six  weeks  prior  to  the  first  treatment  by  hypnotic  suggestion 
this  man  had  slept  not  more  than  two  hours  per  day.  From  the 
first  treatment  by  hypnotic  suggestion  he  had  plentiful  and  re- 


RATIONAL   THERAPEUTICS   IN    EVERY-DAY    PRACTICE.  215 

freshing  sleep,  good  appetite  and  digestion,  bowel  movements  were 
regular  every  day,  and  he  was  agreeable  with  all  with  whom  he  as- 
sociated. The  treatment  of  this  case  consisted  of  the  employment 
of  suggestion  with  and  without  hypnosis,  and  instruction  in 
dietetics,  hygiene,  exercise,  gymnastics,  and  education  along  the 
practical  problems  of  life  and  the  art  of  true  living. 

ILLUSTRATION  9. 

Male,  aged  42 ;  by  occupation  a  real  estate  and  bond  dealer.  Had 
been  for  two  years  seeking  relief  for  a  severe  pain,  which  an- 
noyed him  at  frequent  intervals,  in  one  side  of  his  head.  Besides 
this  annoying  symptom,  he  had  for  many  years  suffered  from 
chronic  constipation,  insomnia,  and  was,  on  account  of  his  failure 
to  obtain  relief  by  the  various  methods  of  treatment  which 
physicians  had  employed,  very  much  alarmed  over  his  condition. 
One  physician  had  had  a  skiagraph  taken  in  an  effort  to  determine 
if  he  had  a  brain  tumor,  and  this  experience  had  added  to  his 
anxiety.  He  was  incapacitated  entirely  for  attending  to  business, 
and  was  altogether  quite  miserable. 

After  six  weeks'  treatment  by  suggestion,  hypnotic  suggestion, 
instruction  in  diet,  exercise,  and  gymnastics,  he  was  enabled  to  re- 
turn to  his  business  entirely  free  from  the  symptoms  which  had 
annoyed  him,  and  has  now,  after  sixty  days,  had  no  return  of 
them. 

ILLUSTRATION  10. 

Male,  aged  50 ;  height,  5  feet  5l/2  inches ;  weight,  140  pounds ;  by 
occupation  a  physician.  This  person  was  a  brother  of  the  pa- 
tient described  in  case  9,  who  came  from  a  distant  state  to  visit 
the  patient  just  as  he  came  under  my  care.  This  physician  was 
impressed  by  the  "oddity"  of  the  regimen  outlined  for  his  brother, 
and  made  no  hesitancy  in  expressing  his  doubt  as  to  the  practical 
outcome  of  such  measures.  After  watching  with  interest  the  satis- 
factory results  which  were  obtained  in  a  very  short  time  by  the 
employment  of  psychotherapeutic  measures  in  the  case  just  de- 
scribed, this  physician  put  himself  under  my  care.  He  had  a 


216  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

history  that  clearly  showed  that  he  had  undergone  an  overstrain 
in  his  education  before  and  during  his  career  as  a  student  of  medi- 
cine, from  which  he  had  never  entirely  reacted.  Eight  years  ago 
he  underwent  an  operation  for  a  tubercular  disease  of  the  epididy- 
mis,  and  had  also  a  cystitis  supposed  to  be  of  tubercular  origin. 
After  the  operation  mentioned,  in  the  course  of  several  years,  he 
recovered  from  the  tubercular  disease,  but  was  left  with  a  con- 
tracted bladder,  holding  not  more  than  an  ounce  of  urine,  and,  as 
a  consequence,  he  was  compelled  to  empty  his  bladder  at  frequent 
intervals  both  day  and  night.  Notwithstanding  this  impediment, 
he  resumed  his  professional  work. 

Eight  months  previous  to  coming  under  my  care  he  had  a  para- 
lytic stroke,  having  fallen  during  the  administration  of  an  anes- 
thetic and  three  days  elapsed  before  consciousness  returned.  When 
he  came  under  my  care  the  arm  and  leg  on  the  affected  side  were 
partially  impaired,  and  his  memory  for  names  and  places  almost  nil. 

His  knowledge  of  the  pathology  of  his  condition,  and  his  failure 
to  recover  after  so  long  a  period,  left  him  psychasthenic  and  phys- 
ically incompetent. 

After  treatment  for  one  month  by  suggestion,  hypnotic  sugges- 
tion, and  by  instituting  a  dietetic,  hygienic,  gymnastic,  and  exer- 
cise regimen,  in  which  the  patient  gave  intelligent,  faithful  co- 
operation, he  has  made  more  improvement  than  in  all  the  previous 
eight  months  combined,  and,  instead  of  feeling  compelled  to  resign 
his  life  to  "vegetating"  for  the  balance  of  his  days,  he  feels  quali- 
fied to  meet  the  exigencies  and  responsibilities  incident  to  his 
struggle  for  existence  as  a  competent,  self-reliant,  capable,  and 
normal  man,  and  has  for  several  months  followed  his  practice. 

ILLUSTRATION  11. 

Female,  aged  42;  married.  Had  been  a  sufferer  from  subacute 
gastritis  for  many  years,  for  which  medicine,  rest,  travel,  mineral 
waters,  electricity,  massage,  and  hydrotherapy  had  been  employed, 
together  with  numerous  dietetic  regimens,  with  no  benefit.  Con- 
stipation, insomnia,  and  other  neurasthenic  symptoms  were  in  evi- 
dence. The  temperature  of  this  patient  was  101%°,  specific  grav- 


RATIONAL   THERAPEUTICS   IN    EVERY-DAY    PRACTICE.  217 

ity  of  urine  1,000,  and  she  was  nervous  and  irritable.  She  had 
recently  declined  a  surgical  operation  for  the  relief  of  her  stomach 
disorder,  which  she  was  assured  would  bring  the  only  permanent 
relief  from  her  symptoms.  She  was  greatly  reduced  in  weight, 
pale,  and  anemic,  having  a  sallow  complexion,  furred  and  red 
tongue,  an  irritable  throat  and  nagging  cough,  as  the  result  of  an 
excessively  acid  stomach  secretion. 

After  one  month's  treatment  by  psychotherapeutic  procedures, 
in  which  the  measures  employed  in  the  foregoing  cases  were  insti- 
tuted, she  has  gained  ten  and  a  half  pounds,  sleeps  well,  is  free 
from  cough  and  throat  symptoms ;  specific  gravity  of  urine  is  nor- 
mal, bowel  movements  are  regular  every  day,  skin  has  lost  the 
sallow,  waxy  hue,  and  she  is  strong,  optimistic,  and  happy. 

ILLUSTRATION  12. 

Female,  aged  65.  Highly  cultured — in  fact,  a  victim  of  overin- 
dulgence in  the  pleasures  derived  from  reading,  study,  travel,  and 
other  modes  of  a  particular  type  of  luxurious  living — and  in  many 
respects  a  sensible,  practical  woman.  Since  ten  years  ago  she  had 
reduced  in  weight  from  125  to  93  pounds,  suffered  from  nervous- 
ness, insomnia,  and  obsessions,  as  well  as  other  neurasthenic  and 
psychasthenic  manifestations.  She  had  availed  herself  of  the  treat- 
ment of  the  leading  physicians  of  her  home  city,  as  well  as  having 
received  treatment  by  one  of  the  best  known  neurologists  of  New 
York  city  and  a  famous  physician  of  Berlin,  but  she  had  continued 
to  lose  in  weight,  and  to  suffer  from  her  various  psychoneurotic 
manifestations,  in  spite  of  all  that  had  been  done  for  her. 

She  came  to  me  as  the  result  of  reading  a  former  edition  of  this 
book,  and  was  quite  willing  to  intelligently  co-operate  with  my  mode 
of  treatment,  which  consisted  of  hypnotic  suggestion,  re-education, 
instruction  in  dietetics,  exercise,  and  gymnastics. 

After  seeing  her  at  intervals  of  from  once  per  day  to  once  per 
week  for  three  months,  she  had  gained  eighteen  pounds,  enjoyed 
a  general  feeling  of  well-being,  slept  comparatively  well,  and  felt 
stronger  and  happier  in  every  way.  The  employment  of  Jung's 
association  method  pointed  to  many  abnormal  complexes,  all  of 


218  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

which  revealed  her  scholarly  character  and  strong  ambition  to 
learn,  which  no  doubt  was  the  cause  of  her  symptomatic  manifes- 
tations. 

No  effort  was  made  to  go  into  an  analysis  of  the  psychogenetic 
origin  of  her  symptoms  more  than  to  point  out  to  her  the  necessity 
of  living  the  simple  life,  and  I  also  taught  her  how,  as  a  means  of 
conserving  and  maintaining  the  highest  possible  degree  of  nervous 
and  mental  stability,  she  could  meet  the  exigencies  incident  to  a 
normal  wholesome  life. 

I  could  report  many  more  cases  where  the  employment  of  psycho- 
therapeutic  treatment,  embracing  the  measures  employed  in  the 
cases  here  reported,  have  been  attended  with  gratifying  results 
where  other  measures  in  general  use  had  been  inadequate. 

As  to  the  correctness  of  the  diagnoses  in  the  cases  mentioned, 
they  were  in  accord  with  the  opinions  of  physicians,  most  of  whom 
are  occupying  professorships  in  medical  universities  throughout 
various  sections  of  the  United  States. 

As  stated  in  the  beginning  of  this  chapter,  the  foundation  of 
rational  therapeutics  is  in  pathology,  etiology,  and  diagnosis,  but 
the  trouble  in  most  of  these  cases  was  that  there  had  been  too  much 
pathology  and  diagnosis  impressed  on  the  patient,  and  too  little 
regard  for  practical  methods  of  training  him  away  from  the  pa- 
thology of  his  condition  by  the  employment  of  the  normal  mech- 
anism of  his  nervous  system,  whereby  his  general  condition,  as  well 
as  relief  from  his  special  pathology,  might  be  obtained.  It  is  the 
function  of  psychotherapeutic  measures  to  so  utilize  the  normal 
machinery  of  the  physiological  organism  that  the  destructive  meta- 
morphosis may  be  arrested,  and,  as  far  as  possible,  repaired.  By 
the  employment  of  these  methods  for  the  maintenance  of  the  func- 
tions of  the  entire  organism,  restitution  of  the  special  pathological 
processes  will,  in  many  instances,  undoubtedly  be  the  result.  Con- 
sequently, the  method  of  treatment  is  not  to  be  limited  to  the  treat- 
ment of  merely  so-called  functional  diseases,  and,  when  it  is  skill- 
fully and  judiciously  employed,  it  is  unquestionably  one  of  the 
most  important  therapeutic  resources  at  our  command,  the  value 
of  which  we  are  appreciating  more  and  more  as  our  experience  with 
its  employment  becomes  broader. 


RATIONAL   THERAPEUTICS   IN    EVERY-DAY    PRACTICE.  219 

In  all  of  the  cases  reported  in  this  chapter,  hypnotic  suggestion 
was  freely  employed  as  well  as  simple  suggestion,  and  instruction 
in  dietetics,  hygiene,  exercise,  and  gymnastics.  Every  phase  of  the 
life  of  the  individual  patient  was  freely  discussed,  and  he  was  re- 
educated upon  every  practical  problem  of  life  as  a  means  of  help- 
ing him  to  readapt  himself  to  his  environment.  In  this  process  of 
"re-education"  the  patient  received  the  benefit  of  all  that  could 
be  gained  by  the  psychoanalytic  form  of  psychotherapy,  which  has 
been  so  extensively  elaborated  by  Freud,  whose  methods  are  noth- 
ing more  or  less  than  his  way  of  employing  suggestion. 

Just  a  word  in  regard  to  the  employment  of  hypnotic  suggestion. 
In  no  instance  do  I  attempt  to  deceive  the  patient.  I  explain  to 
him  what  hypnotism  is,  giving  him  a  lucid  explanation  of  its  the- 
oretical basis,  as  a  therapeutic  agent,  as  applicable  to  his  individual 
case.  I  frankly  and  truthfully  explain  to  him  that  he  is  not  going 
to  sleep,  but  that  by  his  assistance  and  co-operation  I  am  enabled 
to  train  him  into  placing  himself  into  a  condition  of  increased  re- 
ceptivity to  suggestion  whereby  his  neuron  elements  are  better 
enabled  to  conserve  the  ideas,  feelings,  and  emotions  produced  as 
the  result  of  the  suggestions  employed  by  me.  As  all  motor  ac- 
tions arise  in  the  emotions,  the  patient  is  enabled  to  accomplish  by 
his  own  voluntary  efforts  that  which  he  could  not  accomplish  with- 
out such  assistance.  Hypnotic  suggestion  has  enabled  me  to  dis- 
pense with  hypnotics  in  the  treatment  of  insomnia.  By  the  use  of 
hypnotic  suggestion,  intelligently  and  judiciously  applied,  we  are 
enabled  to  promote  sleep,  quiet  nervousness,  relieve  pain,  encour- 
age secretion,  aid  excretion,  stimulate  functional  activity,  control 
sensation,  aid  digestion,  strengthen  the  will,  develop  latent  talents, 
strengthen  the  muscles,  correct  morbid  fears,  cure  despondency, 
hallucinations,  obsessions,  and,  in  conjunction  with  other  psycho- 
therapeutic  measures,  to  prevent  certain  forms  of  insanity. 

Here  I  would  again  repeat  that  psychotherapeutic  measures  are 
not  a  complete  system  of  medicine,  but  should  be  used  in  conjunc- 
tion with  other  therapeutic  resources,  though  often  they  give  relief 
where  other  remedies  have  failed,  and  often,  when  used  alone, 
other  measures  are  unnecessary.  The  measures  embraced  in  the 
application  of  the  principles  of  psychotherapy  are  applicable  to 


220  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

every  patient  who  is  able  and  willing  to  give  intelligent  co-opera- 
tion. In  its  employment  we  do  nothing  more  or  less  than  help  the 
patient  to  make  use  of  the  normal  potentialities  of  the  psycho- 
physiological  organism,  and  equip  him  or  her  to  be  better  enabled 
to  use  these  mechanisms  or  nervous  potentialities  for  oneself. 


CHAPTER  XL 
SOME  OTHER  PRACTICAL  POINTS. 

Unquestionably  the  fine  art  in  applying  suggestive  therapeutics 
lies  in  the  employment  of  suggestion  without  an  effort  to  induce 
a  sleeplike  condition.  Yet,  if  the  individual  can  be  induced  to  act 
upon  and  execute  your  suggestion,  either  consciously  or  subcon- 
sciously, it  is  by  the  use  of  the  same  method — call  it  reasoning,  per- 
suasion, advice,  preaching,  education,  suggestion,  or  hypnotism. 

Upon  one  occasion,  when  I  was  standing  by  a  cigar  stand  with 
two  physicians,  and  holding  in  my  hand  a  small  vial  of  water,  a 
third  physician,  a  stranger  to  me,  walked  up  and  asked,  "What  is 
that  in  your  hand  ? ' ' 

' '  Liquid  electricity, ' '  was  my  reply. 

"Liquid  electricity;  why,  what  is  that  and  what  is  it  for?" 

"It  is  used  locally  as  an  anesthetic  to  relieve  paia,  cure  headache, 
extract  teeth,  and  do  minor  surgery,"  said  I.  "Hold  out  your  arm 
and  I  will  demonstrate  its  efficacy. ' ' 

The  physician  extended  his  arm,  and,  rubbing  some  of  the  water 
on  the  back  of  it  for  half  a  minute,  I  drew  from  my  pocket  a 
small  steel  pin,  and,  holding  it  between  my  eyes  and  his,  said  to 
him,  "You  see  this  pin.  I  am  going  to  stick  it  through  a  fold  of 
skin  on  your  arm,  but  you  will  not  feel  it.  Your  arm  is  perfectly 
dead,  and,  if  that  hurts  you  in  the  least,  let  the  physicians  present 
know  it.  Look  at  it;  here  it  goes,"  thrusting  the  pin  through  a 
large  fold  of  his  skin. 

"Did  that  hurt  you?"  asked  one  of  the  physicians. 

"Not  the  least  bit,"  was  his  reply. 

Taking  me  by  the  arm,  the  first  physician  said,  "Come  back  this 
way,  Dr.  Munro;  come  back  with  us,  Dr.  Blank."  In  his  office  he 
turned  to  me  and  said,  Dr.  Munro,  shake  hands  with  Dr.  Blank." 

"I  want  some  of  that  preparation  of  yours,"  said  he. 

221 


222  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

When  I  explained  that  the  medicine  was  only  water,  and  that 
I  had  been  talking  to  the  other  physicians  present  about  the  efficacy 
of  suggestion,  he  laughed  heartily  and  seemed  to  appreciate  the 
experience. 

Such  experiences  have  been  mine  in  hundreds  and  hundreds  of 
instances,  not  only  experimental  and  demonstrative,  but  also  with 
a  direct  therapeutic  aim.  I  state  this  experience  in  detail  to  bring 
out  this  point — the  unconscious  use  of  suggestive  methods  is  the 
most  effective. 

In  three-fourths  of  the  cases  where  an  individual  requests  that 
he  be  placed  in  the  hypnotic  state,  we  fail  to  get  him  into  a  state 
of  suggestibility  sufficiently  effective  to  induce  anesthesia  by  sug- 
gestion, but  by  suggestion  in  disguise  we  frequently  succeed  in  a 
hundred  cases  consecutively  without  a  failure.  A  physician  in 
a  western  city  questioned  the  above  statement,  as  have  many  other 
physicians  who  had  to  be  shown. 

On  an  occasion  of  my  lecture  and  demonstrations,  one  physician, 
after  inducing  hypnosis,  proceeded  as  usual  and  induced  anesthesia 
and  made  other  tests.  Then  another  did  the  same,  upon  an  entirely 
new  subject,  to  the  extent  that  a  large  pin  was  thrust  through  the 
fold  of  the  man's  face  without  his  evincing  the  slightest  evidence 
of  pain,  and  he  was  also  made  to  sustain  a  weight  of  two  hundred 
pounds  on  his  body  with  his  head  on  one  chair  and  his  heels  on 
another,  to  demonstrate  the  efficacy  of  suggestion. 

At  this  juncture  the  physician  who  had  questioned  my  ability  to 
successfully  hypnotize  such  a  large  percentage  of  individuals,  asked 
if  I  called  that  hypnotism.  "Why,"  exclaimed  he,  "you  are  get- 
ting those  men  to  do  that  through  autosuggestion. ' ' 

' '  Certainly,  Doctor, ' '  was  my  reply. 

"Well,  why  don't  you  call  your  work  by  the  right  name,  and 
say  you  are  demonstrating  and  teaching  suggestion  and  autosug- 
gestion ? ' ' 

Other  physicians  present,  who  were  men  of  the  highest  profes- 
sional attainments,  assured  the  physician  in  question  that  they  had 
never  witnessed  more  successful  demonstrations  of  the  efficacy  of 
suggestion,  having  seen  work  both  in  America  and  Europe  by  com- 
petent men. 


.SOME   OTHER    PRACTICAL   POINTS.  223 

The  extreme  ignorance  manifested  by  some  men  in  regard  to  the 
practical  and  theoretical  phases  of  psychotherapy  is  pitiful.  They 
expect  to  find  in  hypnotism  some  uncanny  influence  by  which  they 
can  dominate  and  control  people  without  regard  to  their  wishes  or 
knowledge,  as  has  been  claimed  by  every  kind  of  outlandish  faker 
advertising  to  teach  all  sorts  of  absurdities. 

The  only  class  of  people  that  we  can  dominate,  as  distinguished 
from  simply  aiding  them  to  execute  an  idea  or  series  of  ideas,  is 
those  of  an  unstable  nervous  organization,  in  whom  a  consciousness 
of  self-control  has  never  been  evolved.  Such  people  are  so  sug- 
gestible that  they  readily  take  suggestions  put  in  the  form  of  posi- 
tive affirmations  in  the  waking  state,  but  for  therapeutic  purposes 
they  are  the  least  satisfactory  patients,  although  the  very  ones  that 
most  need  our  help,  and  the  class  of  cases  for  whom  suggestion  is 
more  useful  than  any  other  measure. 

I  have  experimented  with  hypnotism  and  suggestion  in  every 
possible  manner,  both  for  amusement,  demonstration,  and  thera- 
peutic application.  The  more  normal,  reliable,  and  strongest  nerv- 
ous organizations  have  always  produced  the  most  satisfactory  re- 
sults, because  they  could  best  exercise  self-control,  and  were  better 
able  to  act  upon  and  execute  a  suggestion,  both  consciously  and 
subconsciously.  We  can  treat  by  suggestion  any  individual  who 
seeks  our  services  as  a  physician. 

Never,  under  any  consideration,  let  a  patient  suggest  to  you  the 
kind  of  treatment  you  must  adopt. 

In  the  case  of  unstable  and  degenerative  nervous  organizations, 
the  problem  is  to  bring  about  those  conditions  that  increase  their 
protoplasmic  energies,  as  well  as  to  direct  those  energies  into  nor- 
mal, useful,  healthful  channels.  I  have  often  prescribed  a  placebo 
to  satisfy  the  patient,  while  I  only  too  well  realized  that  his  benefit 
and  recovery  depended  altogether  upon  my  influence  upon  his 
habits  of  thought  and  conduct. 

A  neurotic  lady,  for  whom  I  prescribed  a  teaspoonful  of  com- 
pound rhubarb  and  soda  mixture  at  bedtime  for  sleep,  and  advised 
to  relax,  and  breathe  deeply  and  rhythmically  for  ten  minutes  when 
she  retired,  so  the  medicine  could  have  full  effect,  complained  that 
she  slept  so  soundly  that  she  felt  "dead  all  over"  the  next  morning. 


224  SUGGESTIVE  THERAPEUTICS. 

I  accepted  that  as  evidence  of  a  splendid  result  of  the  treatment, 
but  advised  her  to  reduce  the  dose  one-half,  drink  more  water,  and 
take  more  exercise  in  open  air  and  sunshine,  assuring  her  that  the 
"dead  feeling"  was  only  her  "nervousness  dying  out." 

Never  use  hypnotism  or  suggestion  for  amusement  upon  any 
occasion. 

The  physicians  in  the  United  States  who  have  felt  that  their 
practices  were  injured  by  their  use  of  suggestion  and  hypnotism 
have  been  those  who  have  given  parlor  entertainments,  etc.  I  have 
yet  to  find  a  single  man  who  employs  suggestive  measures  in  a  dig- 
nified, conscientious  manner  but  whose  success  has  been  augmented 
both  therapeutically  and  financially. 

I  can  cite  some  men  who  have  stated  to  me  five  years  after  taking 
my  instruction  in  suggestive  therapeutics  that  the  knowledge  de- 
rived from  the  one  lesson  had  benefited  them  more  than  a  three- 
months'  course  of  post-graduate  instruction.  They  were  men  who 
had  not  before  realized  their  own  worth,  and  by  the  lesson  in  sug- 
gestive therapeutics  they  awoke  to  a  higher  appreciation  of  their 
personality  as  a  therapeutic  recourse. 

It  has  been  asserted  that  a  patient  who  has  been  frequently  hyp- 
notized has  been  robbed  of  self-reliance  and  become  so  helpless  that 
he  must  lean  upon  his  hypnotizer  for  support.  On  the  contrary, 
I  have  frequently  planted  suggestions  into  the  minds  of  patients 
that  have  rendered  them  so  independent,  and  capable,  and  self- 
reliant  that  they  have  refused  to  have  further  suggestions  from  me, 
taking  their  lives  into  their  own  hands,  being  guided  by  their  own 
reason,  while  we  remained  the  best  of  friends. 

A  man  had  been  so  crazed  by  a  long  drunken  spree  that  he  be- 
came delirious,  and  rushed  out  of  his  house  in  the  dark,  ran  into 
a  fence,  and  landed  in  a  neighbor's  house,  begging  him  to  protect 
him,  his  face  bleeding  from  the  obstacles  he  had  encountered.  Be- 
side his  bed  was  found  an  iron  poker,  and  on  either  side  of  him 
were  respectively  a  pistol  and  a  large  knife.  His  stomach  had  at 
last  become  his  best  friend,  and  given  him  a  chance  to  end  his 
siege  of  alcoholic  poisoning  by  rejecting  all  whisky  he  attempted 
to  put  into  it,  as  well  as  all  medicine  given  for  the  relief  of  his 
miserable  nervous  and  mental  condition.  He  felt,  however,  crazed 


SOME   OTHER    PRACTICAL    POINTS.  225 

as  he  was,  that  I  was  his  friend,  and  I  did  my  best  to  prove  worthy 
of  his  confidence. 

I  placed  a  cold  towel  upon  his  forehead,  and  began  my  sugges- 
tions to  hypnotize  him  by  telling  him  that  the  cold  application 
\vould  quiet  him  all  over  and  make  him  drowsy  and  sleepy,  and 
that  he  would  go  to  sleep  and  sleep  soundly  all  night,  and  awaken 
in  the  morning  feeling  all  right.  Though  I  had  secured  thorough 
relaxation,  with  his  eyes  closed  and  with  him  breathing  through 
his  mouth,  when  I  suggested  that  "this  cold  towel  will  put  you 
to  sleep  and  you  will  sleep  soundly  all  night,"  he  took  a  deep  in- 
spiration and  said,  "Lord  grant  it,"  showing  how  he  acquiesced 
in  the  treatment.  He  was  hypnotized,  and  suggestions  were  given 
to  quiet  all  nervousness,  to  relieve  his  irritable  stomach,  to  get  him 
to  sleep  soundly  all  night,  to  excite  a  disgust  or  antipathy  and 
hatred  for  whisky,  and,  above  all,  to  awaken  within  him  a  con- 
sciousness of  manhood  and  duty  to  his  family. 

He  slept  soundly  all  night  from  half-past  five  in  the  afternoon 
until  half-past  seven  the  following  morning,  and,  as  I  approached 
the  front  door  on  my  return  visit,  his  wife,  whose  nervous  system 
had  been  shattered  by  such  experiences  for  several  years,  met  me 
with  the  exclamation,  "Oh,  Dr.  Munro,  do  you  reckon  Mr.  Blank 
will  ever  wake  up?" 

"Why,  certainly,  Mrs.  Blank;  he  is  breathing,  is  he  not?" 

"Yes,  he  has  been  resting  nicely,  and  I  was  able  to  retire  last 
night  and  get  some  sleep  for  the  first  time  in  three  weeks." 

Upon  awakening  the  patient  in  question,  who  was  a  large,  strong, 
well-educated,  successful  business  man,  I  congratulated  him  upon 
having  a  good  night's  sleep  and  assured  him  that  he  would  not  care 
for  more  whisky,  and  was  going  to  be  a  man  after  that. 

That  evening  I  said  to  him,  "Mr.  Blank,  I  desire  to  put  you  to 
sleep  again,"  and,  extending  his  hand,  he  said,  "Dr.  Munro,  you 
c-a-n-t  do  it,  I  thank  you  very  much  for  the  treatment  last  night 
and  shall  always  appreciate  it,  but  I  do  not  expect  to  touch  any 
more  whisky,  and  I  shall  get  along  all  right." 

I  assured  him  that  I  was  very  glad  indeed  to  hear  him  talk  that 
way,  and  that  for  his  wife's  and  daughter's  sake,  as  well  as  his 
own,  I  knew  he  would  feel  happier.  I  turned,  however,  to  an  at- 


226  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

tendant  and  directed  that  a  placebo  capsule  (of  powdered  licorice 
root)  be  given  at  eight  o'clock,  and,  in  case  he  did  not  sleep  soundly 
by  nine,  to  give  a  second  capsule,  suggesting  to  the  patient  that 
he  would  sleep  soundly  all  night.  He  refused  hypnotic  sugges- 
tion, but  took  the  placebo  capsules  and  slept  soundly. 

It  is  very  easy  to  get  an  individual  to  accept  a  suggestion  that 
is  in  accordance  with  his  natural  desires.  Some  people  do  not  want 
to  get  well.  They  enjoy  the  sympathy  and  attention  of  an  over- 
anxious family  ad  nauseam.  In  such  cases  a  suggestion  given  to 
set  up  a  reaction  may  become  necessary. 

A  physician  had  a  pneumonia  patient  who  had  insisted  that  he 
was  going  to  die  on  a  certain  night.  The  family  had  asked  that 
another  doctor  be  called  in,  and  that  each  of  them  stay  on  watch 
during  the  night. 

The  attending  physician  had  kindly  assured  the  family  that  there 
were  no  alarming  symptoms,  and  also  did  all  he  could  to  reason 
with  and  reassure  the  patient.  Nevertheless,  at  the  appointed  time 
the  young  man  sent  for  his  family  and  began  bidding  them 
good-by,  when  at  that  juncture  the  attending  physician  walked  into 
the  room,  where  the  new  recruit  had  for  two  hours  been  on  watch. 

He  was  a  man  who  did  things  in  his  own  way;  so  he  insisted 
that  all  the  family  go  out  of  the  room  and  demanded  of  the  patient, 
as  if  he  were  mad  enough  to  fight,  what  all  this  commotion  meant  ? 
When  the  young  man  assured  him  that  he  was  going  to  die  and 
could  not  get  well,  etc.,  the  wise  old  physician  answered,  "Well, 
die,  -  -  you,  die  and  be  in  a  hurry  about  it;  make  haste  and  let 
me  see  you."  Then  placing  his  hand  on  his  forehead,  he  called 
the  boy  by  name  and  said  to  him  kindly,  "I  am  tired  of  all  this 
foolishness.  You  are  going  to  get  well.  You  can't  die,  it  matters 
not  how  hard  you  try.  Now,  close  your  eyes  and  go  to  sleep,  and 
let  me  hear  no  more  from  you."  The  patient  was  relieved  of  his 
morbid  psychoneurotic  condition  and  made  a  nice  recovery. 

A  hypodermic  of  %0  grain  of  apomorphin  has  served  the  author 
as  a  most  valuable  means  of  suggestion. 

In  some  psychoneurotic  cases  a  Paquelin  cautery,  heated  to  a 
cherry-red  heat  before  the  patient's  eyes  and  brushed  with  quick 
light  strokes  down  the  spine,  proves  a  most  valuable  expedient  as 


SOME   OTHER   PRACTICAL   POINTS.  227 

a  means  of  suggestion.  Hundreds  and  hundreds  of  physicians 
are  using  the  static  machine  at  so  much  per  treatment.  Says  one, 
who  is  honest  enough  to  admit  that  it  is  only  a  suggestive  means 
of  treatment:  "It  matters  not  what  be  the  trouble,  I  give  them 
all  the  same  dose. ' ' 

A  man  who  will  exercise  the  courage  to  do  so,  can  use  suggestion 
and  get  results  when  all  such  subterfuges  are  worthless.  He  can 
take  his  equipment  with  him  wherever  he  goes,  and  the  general 
practice  of  medicine  is  unquestionably  the  field  for  its  most  valu- 
able and  effective  employment. 

In  my  work  among  the  physicians  it  has  been  a  matter  of  ob- 
servation that  psychotherapy  is  being  appreciated  just  in  propor- 
tion as  culture  and  education  are  most  in  evidence.  Its  successful 
employment,  as  with  all  other  branches  of  medicine,  depends 
largely  upon  the  personality  of  the  physician.  There  is  no  disease 
or  condition  where  its  use  is  contraindicated,  provided  the  right 
suggestions  are  given  to  help  the  patient. 

If  used  to  benefit  the  patient,  its  employment  will  make  friends 
for  the  physician.  No  selfish,  cold-blooded  physician  who  is  in 
the  practice  of  medicine  solely  for  the  money,  and  who  has  his 
patients'  interest  not  more  at  heart  than  the  desire  to  secure  a 
fee,  can  ever  be  a  successful  psychotherapist.  It  is  best  employed 
by  the  man  who  is  most  willing  to  stand  up  for  his  weaker  brother 
— who  is  most  anxious  to  help  his  patients  to  help  themselves. 
Character,  which  is  educated  thinking,  desiring,  willing,  and  act- 
ing, is  a  valuable  asset  in  the  make-up  of  a  physician's  therapeutic 
armamentarium.  With  such  an  asset  his  conduct  toward  his  pa- 
tients will  be  governed  accordingly. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

SUGGESTION  AS  AN  ADJUNCT  IN  THE  ADMINISTRATION 
OF  ANESTHETICS. 

In  my  association  with  the  physicians  in  the  capacity  before 
mentioned  I  have  been  interested  in  all  phases  of  surgical  work, 
and  have  witnessed  operations  in  many  leading  hospitals  by  some 
of  the  foremost  surgeons  of  our  country,  as  well  as  by  those  of 
lesser  note,  and  have  had  the  importance  of  the  subject  of  sug- 
gestion to  the  general  welfare  of  surgery  impressed  on  me  by  many 
illustrations  in  both  hospital  and  private  work. 

I  invite  the  reader's  attention  to  (a)  the  efficacy  of  suggestion 
to  induce  anesthesia;  (b)  the  danger  to  the  patient  attending  the 
administration  of  anesthetics;  (c)  the  possibility  of  better  results 
in  surgical  work  where  the  minimum  amount  of  anesthetic  is  used ; 
(d)  the  efficacy  of  suggestion  as  an  adjunct  in  the  administration 
of  anesthetics,  and  the  safety  of  the  method  to  the  patient. 

(a)  As  to  the  efficacy  of  suggestion  to  induce  anesthesia,  I  have 
instructed  physicians  to  follow  a  simple  method  of  using  sugges- 
tion to  the  extent  that  anesthesia  was  induced  so  that  a  pin  was 
thrust  through  the  fold  of  the  skin  in  an  individual's  arm  or  face, 
or  through  his  lip  or  neck,  without  the  slightest  evidence  of  pain. 
These  tests  were  made  under  conditions  of  absolute  fairness,  the 
subject  for  each  demonstration  being  taken  at  random  from  the 
streets,  and  had  not  the  slightest  idea  that  the  results  were  other 
than  the  effect  of  a  placebo  (a  bottle  of  medicine)  which  was  used 
as  a  means  of  suggestion. 

Among  the  first  group  of  physicians  to  give  me  audience  was  a 
dentist,  who,  within  less  than  an  hour  after  our  engagement,  ex- 
tracted teeth  for  two  patients  without  pain  or  even  the  knowl- 
edge that  the  teeth  had  been  removed,  having  used  suggestion  for 
the  operation. 

Since  that  time  I  have  had  occasion  to  demonstrate  the  efficacy 

228 


SUGGESTION    AS   AN    ADJUNCT   TO   ANESTHETICS.  229 

of  suggestion  to  induce  anesthesia  in  dentistry  many  times,  and 
would  occasionally  anesthetize  a  patient,  where  a  favorable  psycho- 
logical situation  presented  itself,  in  the  presence  of  one  or  more 
physicians  in  the  removal  of  tumors,  sewing  up  incised  wounds, 
opening  abscesses,  setting  a  fracture,  amputating  a  finger,  resect- 
ing a  rib,  in  operation  for  empyemia,  where  the  use  of  ether  or 
chloroform  were  not  justifiable,  in  operation  for  adenoids,  the  re- 
moval of  tonsils,  and  in  obstetrics. 

One  physician,  to  my  knowledge,  had  within  five  months  used 
suggestion  in  minor  surgery  in  not  less  than  five  or  six  hundred 
instances,  and  hundreds  of  physicians,  who  made  effort  to  do  so, 
had  success  in  the  application  of  this  phase  of  psychotherapy  far 
beyond  what  they  had  ever  expected  possible  to  obtain.  Among 
these  were  some  who  had  availed  themselves  of  opportunities  to 
witness  the  practical  employment  of  suggestion  in  all  parts  of  the 
world,  and  had  implanted  within  them  the  conviction  that  sug- 
gestion was  not  of  efficacy  when  employed  by  them. 

Of  the  subjects  used  for  demonstrations  by  the  physicians  99 
percent  were  amenable  to  suggestions,  made  by  physicians  with  no 
previous  experience,  sufficient  for  anesthesia  to  be  induced. 

(b)  Regarding  the  danger  to  the  patient  attending  the  adminis- 
tration of  anesthetics,  no  satisfactory  statistics  are  today  obtain- 
able in  reference  to  the  mortality  from  chloroform  or  ether  anes- 
thesia. Nitrous  oxid  is  not  yet  practicable  for  general  surgical 
work,  however  meritorious  and  free  from  danger  this  agent  may 
be ;  so  my  remarks  will  be  restricted  to  the  use  of  suggestion  as  an 
adjunct  to  the  employment  of  ether  and  chloroform  in  the  produc- 
tion of  anesthesia. 

Statistics  collected  by  Julliard  show  a  mortality  from  chloroform 
in  524,507  administrations  of  161  deaths — rate,  1  in  3,258;  and 
from  ether  in  314,738  administrations  of  21  deaths — rate,  1  in 
14,987.  Those  collected  by  Gurlt  in  Germany  from  1891  to  1897 
show  a  death  rate  of  1  in  2,039  from  chloroform,  and  1  in  5,000 
from  ether. 

My  opinion  is  that  the  mortality  is  very  much  greater  than  is 
shown  by  statistics.  Many  deaths,  no  doubt,  occur  from  the  exces- 
sive administration  of  ether  and  chloroform  that  are  ascribed  in  per- 


230  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

feet  candor  to  the  inadequate  physical  condition  of  the  patient  and 
not  to  the  anesthetic,  and  my  reason  for  this  conclusion  will  be 
fully  set  forth. 

In  a  city  of  my  knowledge  two  deaths  occurred  on  the  operating 
table,  a  week  apart,  which  were  reported  at  the  local  medical  so- 
ciety, and  the  cause  ascribed  was  the  administration  of  ether  (not 
the  excessive  administration  of  ether). 

In  another  city  two  deaths  occurred,  one  each  from  chloroform 
and  ether,  in  a  period  of  less  than  sixty  days  apart.  These  four 
deaths  occurred  upon  the  operating  table  and  were  directly  the 
effect  of  the  excessive  administration  of  the  anesthetic  upon  the 
centers  presiding  over  the  circulation  and  respiration. 

In  another  instance  of  my  knowledge  an  eastern  expert  was  giv- 
ing a  lecture  on  the  administration  of  ether,  and  at  the  same  time 
demonstrating  the  technic  of  the  method  employed  by  him,  before 
a  body  of  medical  men.  He  was  urging  the  importance  of  pro- 
found anesthesia  for  the  safety  of  the  patient,  and  was  pushing 
the  anesthetic  to  its  full  physiological  effect  to  secure  the  condition 
desired,  when  the  surgeon  in  waiting  modestly  touched  him,  call- 
ing his  attention  to  the  condition  of  his  patient — he  was  dead. 
This  case  went  on  the  hospital  records  as  ' '  heart  failure, ' '  and  the 
magnanimous  spirit  of  the  physicians  present  did  all  they  could 
to  console  their  crestfallen  visitor. 

I  have  more  than  once  asked  in  confidence  the  resident  physician 
in  a  large  hospital,  "Do  you  ever  have  a  death  on  the  operating 
table  from  the  anesthetic?"  and  received  this  or  a  similar  reply, 
"Oh,  yes,  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  we  do,  more  frequently  than  we 
feel  is  justified." 

The  immediate  untoward  effects  of  the  anesthetic  have  been  most 
strongly  impressed  upon  me,  and  this  leaves  out  of  consideration 
the  secondary  effects  or  conditions  likely  to  follow  as  a  sequel  to 
the  administration  of  an  anesthetic,  more  especially  where  used  in 
excess,  such  as  bronchitis,  broncho-pneumonia,  lobar  pneumonia, 
renal  congestion,  nephritis  and  urinary  suppression,  jaundice, 
glycosuria,  and  insanity.  These  and  other  results  are  known  to 
follow  the  administration  of  anesthetics. 

Whatever  else  might  be  said  in  regard  to  the  physiological  ac- 


SUGGESTION    AS   AN    ADJUNCT- "TO   ANESTHETICS.  231 

tion  of  chloroform  and  ether,  they  undoubtedly  act  by  arresting 
the  activity  of  the  nervous  centers  concerned  in  sensation.  Given 
in  excess,  they  destroy  life  by  paralyzing  the  nervous  mechanism 
concerned  in  the  circulation  or  respiration,  or  possibly  in  both. 

Any  drug  that  is  capable  of  depriving  an  individual  of  conscious- 
ness and  rendering  him  insensible  to  pain  is  a  poison,  and  should  at 
all  times  be  regarded  as  such.  The  use  of  chloroform  and  ether 
in  the  production  of  anesthesia,  administered  by  inhalation,  influ- 
ences the  nerve  centers  presiding  over  all  bodily  functions,  and 
causes  degenerative  cellular  changes  in  every  organ  and  cell  in  the 
body.  The  toxemia  produced  in  consequence  of  the  administra- 
tion of  these  anesthetics  varies  in  severity  in  different  patients, 
dependent  on  the  amount  of  the  anesthetic  administered  at  a  given 
time,  the  strength  of  the  drug  used,  the  length  of  time  employed 
in  anesthesia,  and  the  quality  of  neuron  structure  in  the  complex 
mechanism  of  the  entire  physiological  organism. 

In  by  far  the  greater  number  of  surgical  patients  there  exists 
a  general  condition  of  physiological  insufficiency  or  a  marked  de- 
gree of  physiological  incompetency.  Aside  from  the  gross  patho- 
logic changes  in  the  local  area  to  be  relieved  by  surgical  procedures, 
the  cells  of  the  entire  organism  do  not  properly  perform  their 
functions. 

The  predisposing  factors  which  contribute  toward  fatal  results 
are  such  conditions  as  sepsis,  anemia,  loss  of  blood,  chronic  wasting 
diseases,  and  any  similar  condition  that  lowers  the  resistive  powers 
of  the  cells  of  the  organism. 

In  all  such  cases  less  of  the  drug  employed  is  required  to  pro- 
duce anesthesia,  due  to  the  existing  vulnerable  condition  of  the 
protoplasmic  elements  of  the  organism. 

Cells  that  are  already  engaged  in  mortal  combat  with  pathogenic 
germs,  or  weakened  from  loss  of  blood,  or  struggling  to  eliminate 
toxic  material  from  some  of  the  various  morbid  conditions  which 
give  rise  to  surgical  intervention,  in  the  administration  of  anes- 
thetics (especially  when  used  in  excess  of  the  minimum  amount 
required  for  anesthesia)  are  deprived  of  their  fighting  qualities, 
their  function  is  inhibited,  activity  is  arrested— stunned,  benumbed, 
exhausted— poisoned  to  a  degree  that  renders  them  unresponsive 


232  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

to  internal  or  external  stimuli;  so  no  wonder  the  tendency  to  col- 
lapse, surgical  shock,  or  death. 

(c)  Let  us  briefly  consider  the  possibility  of  better  results  in 
surgical  work  where  the  minimum  amount  of  the  anesthetic  is  used. 

The  American  text  book  of  surgery,  on  page  1116,  says :  ' '  Anes- 
thetics act  by  producing  paralysis  of  the  cerebrospinal  nerve  cen- 
ters. There  is  first  a  stage  of  cerebral  excitement,  followed  by  a 
stage  of  cerebral  insensibility,  then  a  loss  of  voluntary  movement, 
followed  by  a  loss  of  reflex  action.  Consciousness  is  lost  before 
the  paralysis  of  the  muscles  supervenes,  and  a  patient  is  said  to 
be  fully  anesthetized  when  the  nerve  centers  are  paralyzed,  with 
the  exception  of  those  presiding  over  respiration  and  circulation." 

It  is  conceded  by  the  writers  of  the  text  books  on  surgery  that 
the  dangers  from  chloroform  are  chiefly  in  connection  with  the 
circulation,  and  are  manifested  by  various  degrees  of  circulatory 
depression ;  and  that  the  dangers  from  ether  are  chiefly  in  connec- 
tion with  the  respiration,  and  are  manifested  by  various  degrees 
of  asphyxia. 

The  point  that  I  desire  to  emphasize  by  these  references  is  that 
ether  and  chloroform  are  dangerous  poisons,  and  that  they  are  re- 
garded as  such  by  all  writers  on  surgery.  The  only  logical  conclu- 
sion, then,  is  that  the  least  amount  of  the  anesthetic  administered 
to  secure  complete  insensibility  is  most  conducive  to  the  safety  of 
the  patient. 

But  since  it  happens  that  death  occurs  with  comparative  fre- 
quency in  trivial  operations  with  incomplete  anesthesia,  it  is  sup- 
posed by  most  surgeons  that  the  giving  of  too  little  of  the  anes- 
thetic is  attended  with  quite  as  much  danger  as,  if  not  more  than, 
the  free  use  of  the  drug  employed  for  the  production  of  anesthesia. 

The  deaths  that  occur  in  the  administration  of  anesthetics  when 
given  for  trivial  operations  are  due  to  the  morbid  psychic  factor  in 
those  cases,  which  at  the  present  time  is  not  sufficiently  appreciated 
by  anesthetists  and  surgeons.  Fear,  an  emotion  which  arises  as  a 
result  of  the  analysis  of  consequences,  has  a  most  depressing  effect 
upon  the  circulatory  and  respiratory  centers,  and  this,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  the  physiological  action  of  chloroform  and  ether,  given  to 
a  patient  who  becomes  alarmed  at  the  bare  idea  of  taking  an  anes- 


SUGGESTION    AS   AN    ADJUNCT   TO   ANESTHETICS.  233 

thetic,  without  the  proper  precautions  to  secure  a  favorable  psycho- 
logical attitude  on  the  part  of  the  patient,  is  likely  to  produce  death 
in  some  instances,  and  in  such  cases  the  reason  is  ascribed  to  too 
little  anesthetic. 

It  is  possible  that  death  may  occur  from  purely  nervous  shock. 
Shock  may  be  defined  as  a  complete  suspension  of  some  and  partial 
of  others  of  the  functions  of  the  nervous  system.  The  anesthetist 
who  understands  the  technic  of  using  suggestion  in  conjunction 
with  the  administration  of  anesthetics  will  not  only  avoid  the 
danger  from  their  use  in  trivial  operations,  but  will  minimize  the 
danger  from  their  use  in  excessive  doses  in  all  surgical  work,  and 
greatly  increase  the  possibility  of  good  results  to  the  patient  from 
the  operation  as  well. 

Success  in  surgery  is  determined  by  the  benefit  to  the  patient 
in  consequence  of  the  operation.  In  my  opinion  no  anesthetist  is 
justified  in  pouring  a  large  quantity  of  ether  into  a  closed  inhaler 
every  two  to  five  minutes  during  the  administration  and  placing 
this  over  the  patient's  face  so  as  to  exclude  all  air,  as  is  so  com- 
monly done. 

Since  the  anesthetic  produces  actual,  organic,  structural  changes 
in  the  cells  of  the  entire  organism,  and,  in  proportion  to  the  amount 
used,  exhausts  the  patient's  reserved  energy,  the  best  results  from 
surgery  are  impossible  where  the  anesthetic  is  used  in  excess  of 
what  is  actually  necessary  by  its  most  skillful  administration. 

Observation  has  convinced  me  that  the  amount  of  the  anesthetic 
employed  in  a  given  operation  by  different  anesthetists  varies  con- 
siderably, and  that  the  time  required  to  anesthetize  a  patient  varies 
even  more. 

From  thirty  to  forty-five  minutes  in  the  administration  of  ether, 
the  anesthetic  most  commonly  employed  at  the  present  time,  before 
complete  anesthesia  is  produced  is  quite  a  common  occurrence,  if 
not  the  rule,  in  the  majority  of  administrations ;  and  when  we  take 
into  consideration  the  fact  that  enormous  quantities  of  ether  are 
used  in  these  prolonged  administrations,  administered  in  a  closed 
cone  or  inhaler  that  unduly  excludes  the  admixture  of  air,  the 
wonder  is  that  the  mortality  from  the  administration  of  anesthetics 
is  not  even  greater  than  it  is,  to  say  nothing  of  the  lasting  injuri- 


234  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

ous  effects  to  a  nervous  organization,  notwithstanding  the  benefit 
derived  from  surgery  in  the  relief  of  a  gross  pathologic  condition. 
But  what  is  more  important  to  be  considered  is  the  outcome  of 
surgical  work  in  cases  of  excessive  employment  of  agents  so  power- 
ful in  their  effects  as  to  produce  catabolism  or  destructive  meta- 
morphosis, with  the  consequent  toxemia  which  follows,  with  its 
disastrous  effect  upon  an  already  outraged  nervous  system,  as 
occurs  with  the  present  method  commonly  employed  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  chloroform  and  ether. 

However  skilled  a  surgeon  may  be,  or  perfect  in  his  operative 
technic,  the  results  of  his  work  are  seriously  handicapped  where 
the  functions  of  every  cerebral  and  spinal  center  is  seriously  and 
permanently  injured  and  the  resistive  power  of  every  cell  of  the 
organism  is  weakened,  as  is  done  where  an  undue  amount  of  chloro- 
form or  ether  is  employed. 

Nor  are  the  various  compounds  of  morphin  tablets  administered 
hypodermatically  to  inhibit  all  functional  processes,  and,  in  a 
degree,  to  prevent  the  normal  reaction  of  the  patient  from  the 
anesthetic  administered  by  inhalation,  in  my  opinion  justifiable, 
except  in  so  far  as  the  procedure  is  coupled  with  a  suggestive 
influence  that  conveys  to  the  patient  the  idea  of  safety,  and  in  a 
measure  secures  a  favorable  psychological  situation  for  the  use  of 
chloroform  or  ether.  Administered  in  homeopathic  doses,  such 
combinations,  while  not  essential,  would  be  of  unquestioned  value 
as  a  means  of  suggestion. 

(d)  Let  us  now  look  into  the  facts  bearing  evidence  of  the  value 
of  the  employment  of  suggestion  as  an  adjunct  in  the  administra- 
tion of  anesthetics  and  the  safety  of  the  method  to  the  patient. 

Alice  Magaw,  Dr.  W.  J.  Mayo's  anesthetist  at  Rochester,  Min- 
nesota, who  has,  with  possibly  one  exception,  anesthetized  more 
patients  than  any  other  person  in  the  world,  has  an  unbroken 
record  of  approximately  seventeen  thousand  surgical  anesthesias 
without  a  single  death  directly  from  the  anesthetic. 

No  other  surgical  clinic  in  the  world  has  been  so  constantly  wit- 
nessed by  surgeons  during  the  last  several  years  and  no  other  clinic 
presents  a  greater  number  of  difficult  cases  to  be  operated  upon, 


SUGGESTION    AS   AN    ADJUNCT   TO   ANESTHETICS.  235 

or  those  that  are  more  unfit  for  favorable  results  from  the  ad- 
ministration of  anesthetics. 

At  St.  Mary 's  Hospital,  in  the  personalities  of  Alice  Magaw  and 
Miss  Henderson,  the  anesthetists  of  W.  J.  and  C.  H.  Mayo,  at  Roch- 
ester, Minnesota,  we  see  the  results  from  the  outcome  of  surgical 
work  done  with  the  minimum  amount  of  the  drug  employed  for 
anesthesia,  and  the  free  and  intelligent  use  of  suggestion  as  an 
adjunct  to  its  administration. 

It  was  with  no  small  degree  of  pleasure  that,  upon  a  visit  to 
Rochester  during  the  month  of  November,  1907,  I  found  these 
women  actually  putting  into  practice  one  particular  phase  of 
psychotherapy  that  I  had  so  strongly  urged  upon  surgeons  during 
the  eight  years  previous. 

Both  Alice  Magaw  and  Miss  Henderson  were  highly  appreciative 
of  that  particular  part  of  my  lecture  to  the  Physicians'  Club  of 
Rochester  wherein  I  urged  the  importance  of  the  employment  of 
suggestion  as  an  adjunct  in  the  administration  of  anesthetics,  and 
cited  their  every-day  work  as  an  illustration  of  complete  surgical 
anesthesia  with  the  use  of  but  little  ether,  and  the  employment  of 
suggestion  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  individual  patient  as 
an  adjunct.  Moreover,  these  women  were  free  to  say  that  they 
knew  from  every-day  experience  that  what  I  had  to  say  in  refer- 
ence to  the  use  of  suggestion  as  an  adjunct  in  the  administration 
of  anesthetics  was  true. 

In  the  Journal  of  Surgery,  Gynecology,  and  Obstetrics  of  Decem- 
ber, 1906,  Alice  Magaw  says:  "Suggestion  is  a  great  aid  in  pro- 
ducing a  comfortable  narcosis.  The  anesthetist  must  be  able  to 
inspire  confidence  in  the  patient,  and  a  great  deal  depends  on  the 
manner  of  approach.  .  .  .  The  secondary  or  subconscious  self 
is  particularly  susceptible  to  suggestive  influence;  therefore,  dur- 
ing the  administration,  the  anesthetist  should  make  those  sugges- 
tions that  will  be  most  pleasing  to  this  particular  subject.  Pa- 
tients should  be  prepared  for  each  stage  of  the  anesthesia  with  an 
explanation  of  just  how  the  anesthetic  is  expected  to  affect  him— 
'talk  him  to  sleep,'  with  the  addition  of  as  little  ether  as  possible." 

By  the  employment  of  suggestion  scientifically  and  earnestly, 


236  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

very  little  ether  is  required  to  produce  surgical  anesthesia,   and 
even  less  chloroform,  to  keep  a  patient  surgically  anesthetized. 

I  do  not  exaggerate  in  the  least  when  I  assert  that  it  is  quite 
the  common  occurrence  for  an  anesthetist  who  does  not  understand 
the  use  of  suggestion  to  use  from  ten  to  twenty  times  the  amount 
of  ether  in  anesthetizing  a  patient  that  is  used  by  Alice  Magaw 
and  Miss  Henderson,  who  make  use  of  suggestion  in  every  possible 
way  in  a  given  operation. 

Nor  is  the  anesthesia  where  such  enormous  quantities  of  ether 
are  employed  one  iota  more  satisfactory  from  the  surgeon 's  point  of 
view  than  is  secured  for  the  Mayos.  On  the  contrary,  there  is  no 
period  of  excitement,  no  struggling  of  the  patient  that  demands 
restraint,  comparatively  little  stertorous  breathing,  no  feeling  of 
the  pulse,  and  no  hypodermics  administered  in  the  course  of  the 
operation,  and,  more  yet,  an  unbroken  record  of  approximately 
seventeen  thousand  cases  of  anesthesia  without  a  single  death  from 
the  anesthetic. 

But  the  significance  of  the  employment  of  suggestion  as  an 
adjunct  to  the  administration  of  anesthetics  goes  far  beyond  the 
danger  to  the  patient  idirectly  and  immediately  during  the  course 
of  the  operation.  The  surgeon  who  does  not  have  his  patient's  re- 
served energies  so  weakened  and  exhausted,  and  the  patient 's  brain 
and  nerve  centers  presiding  over  all  physiological  processes  so 
seriously  and  permanently  injoired,  as  is  the  case  with  the  Mayos, 
on  account  of  the  employment  of  suggestion  to  obviate  the  neces- 
sity of  such  enormous  quantities  of  the  anesthetic,  simply  has 
more  recuperative  power  left  in  the  cells  of  the  organism  upon 
which  the  hope  for  a  favorable  outcome  from  a  major  operation  is 
based,  and  surgical  operations  upon  patients  with  the  minimum 
amount  of  poison  from  the  anesthetic  to  combat  are  unquestionably 
attended  with  better  results  than  where  larger  quantities  of  the 
drug  are  used. 

Inherent  within  the  protoplasmic  mechanism  of  the  human  organ- 
ism is  an  untapped  reservoir  of  available  energy,  which  is  either 
utilized  by  the  judicious  employment  of  suggestion  for  the  welfare 
of  the  patient,  or  it  is  exhausted,  perverted,  or  wasted  by  the  in- 
discreet use  of  the  anesthetic. 


SUGGESTION    AS   AN    ADJUNCT   TO   ANESTHETICS.  237 

By  suggestion  intelligently  employed  as  an  adjunct  to  surgery 
during  the  administration  of  the  anesthetic,  all  involuntary  physio- 
logical processes  can  be  influenced,  the  normal  resistive  powers  of 
the  patient  conserved  and  utilized,  and  the  amount  of  shock  from 
a  given  operation  reduced  to  comparative  insignificance. 

Instead  of  the  excitement,  muscular  resistance,  respiratory  and 
circulatory  disturbance  that  are  occasioned  by  the  usual  method 
of  administering  anesthetics  without  the  employment  of  suggestion, 
where  suggestion  is  properly  employed,  all  these  manifestations  are 
absent.  Instead  of  increased  neuron  activity,  which  must  be  para- 
lyzed by  large  quantities  of  the  anesthetic,  the  dendritic  processes 
of  the  neurons  are  persuaded  to  retract;  both  motor  and  sensory 
functions  suspend,  and  with  the  addition  of  a  small  amount  of  the 
anesthetic  "a  comfortable  narcosis"  is  induced,  which  answers 
every  purpose  of  the  surgeon  from  the  standpoint  of  complete 
anesthesia. 

In  the  article  cited  Alice  Magaw  farther  says:  ''From  experience 
we  know  that  a  patient  can  be  brought  under  ether  in  from  three 
to  five  minutes,  and,  when  ready,  patients  do  better  if  the  opera- 
tion is  started  at  once."  She  here  recognizes  the  psychological 
moment  at  which  the  operation  should  be  started  for  the  best  in- 
terest of  the  patient.  The  significance  of  this  remark  can  be  ap- 
preciated only  by  those  experienced  in  the  employment  of  sugges- 
tion for  the  production  of  anesthesia. 

From  three  to  five  minutes  is  also  the  time  required  by  Miss 
Henderson  to  produce  surgical  anesthesia  with  ether,  employing 
suggestion  as  an  adjunct.  I  challenge  any  anesthetist  to  produce 
such  satisfactory  anesthesias  as  are  exhibited  by  Miss  Henderson  and 
Alice  Magaw  in  the  clinic  of  the  surgeons  of  St.  Mary's  Hospital 
by  any  other  method  than  the  intelligent  employment  of  sugges- 
tion as  an  adjunct  to  the  administration  of  the  anesthetic. 

These  women  employ  the  ether  "drop  method"  and  "the  inhaler 
used  is  the  improved  Esmarch,  with  two  thicknesses  of  stockinet, 
the  frame  boiled  and  stockinet  changed  after  each  patient."  To 
show  the  small  amount  of  ether  employed  where  suggestion  is  used 
as  an  adjunct  to  its  administration,  I  quote  further  from  Alice 
Magaw 's  article: 


238  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

"We  use  the  dropper  described,  dropping  as  slowly  and  care- 
fully in  giving  ether  as  though  it  were  chloroform  until  the  pa- 
tient's face  is  flushed;  then  a  few  layers  of  surgeon's  gauze  are 
added,  and  the  ether  given  a  trifle  faster  until  the  patient  is  surgi- 
cally etherized ;  then  return  is  made  to  the  same  covering  as  at  the 
start,  and  the  regular  drop  method  continued  throughout  the  opera- 
tion." 

It  has  been  within  my  experience,  with  suggestion  employed  as 
an  adjunct  to  the  administration  of  chloroform,  to  satisfactorily 
anesthetize  a  patient  for  a  double  amputation  above  the  knees  with 
sixty  minims  of  chloroform,  and  another  for  a  suprapubic  cyst- 
otomy  with  as  little  as  twenty  minims  of  this  drug. 

Surgical  patients,  with  but  few  exceptions,  come  to  the  opera- 
ting table  in  a  condition  of  voluntary  self-surrender,  and  are 
particularly  good  subjects  for  the  employment  of  suggestion.  Their 
faith  in  the  efficacy  of  the  anesthetic  employed  is  a  powerful  auto- 
suggestion, and  renders  them  pliable  and  easy  in  the  hands  of  an 
anesthetist  who  is  familiar  with  the  principles  of  psychotherapy 
and  the  methods  of  its  practical  administration. 

From  eight  years'  experience  with  the  medical  profession,  during 
which  time  I  toiled,  and  plodded,  and  prayed  for  a  recognition  of 
psychotherapy  as  an  adjunct  to  the  generally  recognized  thera- 
peutic agencies,  by  making  a  personal  canvass  from  office  to  office 
until  headway  was  made  in  organizing  groups  of  physicians  to 
witness  the  demonstration  and  elucidation  of  practical  methods  of 
the  employment  of  suggestion,  I  learned  to  appreciate  the  great 
need  to  the  profession  of  such  knowledge  as  could  be  employed  by 
the  general  practitioner  as  well  as  the  specialist. 

Many  there  were  who  did  not  doubt  the  efficacy  of  such  measures 
in  the  hands  of  the  few,  who  had  what  they  deemed  some  peculiar 
power  over  people,  but  they  doubted  the  efficacy  of  psychological 
methods  in  their  own  hands. 

This  lack  of  self-confidence,  child  of  ignorance  as  it  was,  was 
everywhere  in  evidence,  and  was  one  of  the  greatest  obstacles  that 
I  had  to  overcome  in  bringing  a  small  group  of  physicians  to- 
gether. One  such  physician  said  to  me,  in  perfect  frankness,  ' '  Why, 
my  dear  sir,  some  people  can  not  apply  these  methods  successfully, 


SUGGESTION    AS   AN    ADJUNCT   TO   ANESTHETICS.  239 

and  I  am  one  who  can  not,  for  I  have  studied  suggestive  thera- 
peutics for  ten  years;  the  past  five  years  were  spent  in  Europe, 
where  I  availed  myself  of  opportunities  to  witness  the  practical 
employment  of  suggestion,  both  with  and  without  hypnosis,  in  the 
great  French  and  German  universities ;  in  my  library  are  more  than 
twenty  volumes  by  various  writers  on  Suggestive  Therapeutics; 
could  I  get  results  like  those  you  mention,  I  would  gladly  pay  ten 
times  the  small  fee  that  you  demand." 

Our  profession  has  had  either  no  instruction  in  regard  to  the 
employment  of  the  more  efficacious  application  of  suggestion,  or  it 
has  been  wrongly  taught. 

To  every  one  of  such  doubting  individuals  I  positively  guaranteed 
that  he  and  every  other  physician  present  should  take  an  individual 
who  was  a  stranger  to  me,  taken  at  random  from  the  passing  crowds 
on  the  streets,  and  by  a  simple  efficacious  method  of  using  sugges- 
tion which  I  would  explain  they  each  should  by  his  own  words  and 
personal  efforts  demonstrate  the  efficacy  of  suggestion  to  induce 
anesthesia,  each  physician  using  a  different  subject. 

As  previously  stated,  approximately  five  thousand  American 
physicans  personally  tested  the  efficacy  of  suggestion  to  produce 
anesthesia,  using  a  small  vial  containing  an  antiseptic  solution,  a 
placebo,  as  a  means  of  suggestion. 

It  requires  but  little  chloroform,  or  ether,  used  in  conjunction 
with  the  judicious  employment  of  suggestion  to  surgically  anes- 
thetize a  patient.  The  greatest  essential  is  a  comprehensive  knowl- 
edge of  the  theoretical  and  practical  features  of  suggestion  as  ap- 
plied in  multifarious  ways  to  the  general  practice  of  medicine. 
The  subject  of  psychotherapy  comprehends  hypnotism,  for  hypno- 
tism is  but  the  employment  of  suggestion  efficaciously  and  system- 
atically. 

The  individual  is  hypnotized  by  suggestion ;  he  is  then  in  a  con- 
dition of  increased  suggestibility,  and  surely,  if  suggestion  is  of 
value  as  an  adjunct  in  the  administration  of  anesthetics,  the  most 
effective  form  of  suggestion  is  of  greatest  value,  for  just  in  pro- 
portion to  its  efficacy  is  the  amount  of  the  anesthetic  employed 
minimized. 

To  use  suggestion  as  an  adjunct  in  the  administration  of  anes- ' 


240  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

thetics  is  simply  to  deal  with  the  patient  in  such  a  humane,  natural 
manner  that  the  anesthetist  becomes  thoroughly  en  rapport  with  his 
patient,  securing  a  conscious  acquiescence,  and  then  so  directing 
the  conscious  and  subconscious,  the  voluntary  and  involuntary  func- 
tions of  the  nervous  system,  psychic  states,  or  streams  of  con- 
sciousness, that,  while  administering  the  anesthetic,  we  persuade 
certain  nerve  and  brain  centers  to  suspend  the  performance  of 
their  functions,  and  others  to  increase,  until  the  small  amount  of 
ether  or  chloroform  being  administered  produces  a  more  profound 
state  of  unconsciousness,  a  physiopsychological  condition,  in  ac- 
cordance with  a  natural  law. 

A  little  5  year-old  boy,  in  my  office  with  his  mother,  needed  to 
be  circumcised.  Everything  was  in  readiness,  and  I  called  his 
mother  to  be  present  to  see  that  I  would  not  hurt  him  in  the  least. 
In  a  natural,  pleasant  manner  I  allowed  him  to  smell  a  delicate  ex- 
tract which  I  had  ordered  especially  for  him,  ' '  because  he  was  such 
a  fine  boy."  I  then  informed  him  that  he  could  lie  on  my  opera- 
ting table,  and  smell  some  perfume  and  go  to  sleep.  This  he  con- 
sented to  do,  and,  having  secured  a  thorough  relaxation,  a  few  drops 
of  the  perfume  was  allowed  to  fall  on  the  towel  which  had  been 
placed  over  his  entire  face,  and  suggestions  at  once  commenced, 
just  as  if  I  were  telling  him  the  effect  was  being  produced  by  the 
perfume,  followed  in  probably  thirty  seconds  by  chloroform, 
dropped  on  the  towel,  just  below  the  tip  of  his  nose,  from  a  small 
homeopathic  vial  taken  from  my  pocket,  with  a  toothpick  arranged 
by  the  side  of  the  cork  so  as  to  allow  a  small  drop  to  slowly  trickle 
from  the  bottle,  until  additional  suggestions  appropriate  to  the 
understanding  of  the  patient  produced  the  desired  result.  He  went 
into  a  comfortable  sleep  in  from  two  to  three  minutes  and  remained 
so  until  I  again  sterilized  my  hands  and  did  the  simple  operation 
while  he  appeared  to  enjoy  his  slumber.  By  actual  measurement 
twenty  minims  of  chloroform  were  used. 

On  repeated  occasions  I  have  produced  anesthesia  by  suggestion 
while  holding  an  unopened  bottle  of  chloroform  in  my  hand,  and 
have  demonstrated  to  the  surgeon  that  a  pin  could  be  thrust  through 
the  patient's  face  or  arm.  I  proceeded  to  drop  ten  drops  of  chloro- 


SUGGESTION    AS   AN    ADJUNCT   TO   ANESTHETICS.  241 

form  on  a  piece  of  gauze  of  three  or  four  thicknesses  that  had  been 
placed  in  the  bottom  of  my  partly  closed  hand,  and,  placing  the 
hand  thus  charged  with  chloroform  over  the  patient's  nose  and 
mouth,  I  proceeded  to  administer  it,  using  suggestion  to  get  the 
patient  to  breathe  naturally  and  rhythmically  and  go  into  a  deeper 
sleep.  By  a  small  addition  of  chloroform,  surgical  anesthesia  was 
produced  in  this  way,  and  the  amount  of  the  drug  used  varied  from 
20  to  30  minims.  The  patient  would  sleep  for  twenty  or  thirty 
minutes  after  the  operation  and  awake  without  nausea,  as  sug- 
gested. 

The  use  of  suggestion  in  conjunction  with  an  anesthetic,  where 
the  patient  has  given  his  consent  to  the  operation,  is  attended  with 
no  failures,  though  the  amount  of  the  anesthetic  used  necessarily 
varies,  according  to  the  individual  idiosyncrasy  of  the  patient,  and 
the  time  required  to  produce  surgical  anesthesia  varies  from  two 
to  five  minutes.  In  all  such  cases  the  amount  of  the  anesthetic 
used  is  reduced  to  comparative  insignificance,  and  the  procedure 
may  be  regarded  as  absolutely  devoid  of  danger. 

A  patient  of  mine  had  a  visitor  some  years  previous  who  died 
in  her  home  from  the  administration  of  chloroform  for  an  opera- 
tion for  intussusception,  and  the  psychic  effect  of  this  experience 
had  been  the  cause  of  her  declining  an  operation  for  a  badly 
lacerated  cervix.  I  had  resorted  to  suggestion  for  the  temporary 
amelioration  of  severe  headaches  and  other  neurotic  symptoms 
which  existed  in  consequence  of  this  pathologic  lesion,  and  on  one 
occasion  gave  her  suggestions  in  the  hypnotic  state  to  relieve  the 
fears  of  the  anesthetic  and  to  get  her  consent  to  the  proposed  opera- 
tion. She  readily  consented  to  the  operation  after  that  suggestion, 
stating  that  she  no  longer  feared  the  effect  of  chloroform.  An 
hour  previous  to  the  operation  I  suggested  to  her  in  the  hypnotic 
state  that  she  would  go  soundly  asleep  as  soon  as  the  anesthetist  be- 
gan to  let  her  inhale  the  chloroform,  that  she  would  breathe 
rhythmically  and  naturally,  that  her  heart  would  become  stronger 
from  inhaling  the  chloroform,  and  her  sleep  sound  and  deep,  so 
that  she  would  have  no  feeling  whatever.  Not  over  30  minims  of 
chloroform  were  required  to  do  this  operation,  given  by  another 


242  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

physician,  who  co-operated  with  my  suggestive  measures,  and  the 
patient  awoke  at  the  time  suggested  without  nausea  or  other  in- 
convenience. 

Invariably  the  anesthetist  or  surgeon  who  makes  employment  of 
suggestion  as  an  adjunct  to  the  administration  of  anesthetics  with 
marked  success  is  he  who  has  taken  a  great  interest  in  hypnotism 
as  a  means  of  using  suggestion  efficaciously. 

Among  other  surgeons  than  the  Mayos  whose  work  has  attracted 
attention  on  account  of  superior  skill  and  large  experience,  who 
make  employment  of  suggestion  with  success  in  the  administration 
of  anesthetics  besides  ether  and  chloroform,  may  be  mentioned  Bo- 
dine,  of  New  York,  in  his  herniotomy  and  other  operations  done 
with  a  yw  of  1-percent  solution  of  cocaine,  and  A.  W.  Morton, 
of  San  Francisco,  in  the  production  of  spinal  anesthesia. 

That  Bodine  employs  more  talk  in  his  operations  with  his 
"Yio  of  1-percent  solution  of  cocaine"  is  recognized  by  him  and  all 
physicians  familiar  with  the  practical  employment  of  suggestion, 
and  I  know  from  Dr.  Morton 's  own  statement  to  me  that  his  success 
with  spinal  anesthesia,  both  for  the  safety  of  his  patients  and  in 
the  completeness  of  his  anesthesias,  has  been  considerably  aug- 
mented by  the  artful  employment  of  suggestion. 

A  careful  study  of  the  chapter  on  Hypnotism  Demonstrated 
will  give  the  reader  all  the  necessary  additional  information  req- 
uisite to  equip  him  to  make  employment  of  suggestion  in  con- 
junction with  the  administration  of  anesthetics. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

PSYCHOTHERAPY  IN  RELATION  TO  THE  EXPECTANT 

MOTHER. 

It  is  generally  conceded  that  the  disorders  that  complicate  the 
state  of  gestation  are  purely  functional  in  character,  but  it  is 
important  to  bear  in  mind  that  a  functional  disorder  (so-called) 
always  implies  a  physical  change,  however  minute  or  microscopic 
this  may  be,  and  that  a  functional  disorder  or  disease,  if  neglected 
long  enough,  may  lead  into  an  organic  condition,  and  that  the 
timely  administration  of  psychotherapy  to  correct  the  functional 
disorder  may  prevent  its  resulting  in  a  gross  pathological  disease. 

Psychotherapy  is  of  value  in  the  prophylaxis  and  treatment  of 
the  functional  and  neuropathic  manifestations  that  annoy  the  ex- 
pectant mother  just  in  proportion  as  we  are  enabled  to  exert  an 
influence  upon  her  habits  of  thought  and  action,  both  conscious 
and  subconscious. 

Each  time  the  physician  comes  into  her  presence  he  has  the  op- 
portunity to  make  such  impressions  upon  her  brain  plasm  as  will 
give  rise  to  emotions,  thoughts,  and  feelings,  which  are  of  unques- 
tionable therapeutic  value  on  the  one  hand,  and  that  will  lead  to 
habits  that  are  conducive  to  both  physical  and  mental  well-being 
on  the  other. 

"What  most  of  our  expectant  mothers  need  is  education,  knowl- 
edge, and  guidance — other  names  for  honest,  truthful  suggestion— 
and  not  instruction  in  the  pathology  of  possible  diseases  that  may 
arise  from  functional  disorders  accompanying  the  state  of  gesta- 
tion. 

A  comprehensive  understanding  of  the  pathology  of  the  more 
serious  diseases  of  pregnancy  on  the  part  of  the  physician  is  of 
unquestionable  value,  but  such  knowledge  is  always  detrimental 
when  in  the  possession  of  the  patient.  So,  while  duly  appreciating 

243 


244  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

a  knowledge  of  the  pathology  of  such  diseases,  what  is  of  far  greater 
importance  to  the  patient  is  that  the  physician  be  qualified  to  so 
manage  her  psychologically  and  physically  as  to  prevent  the  oc- 
currence of  such  diseases. 

Take  the  expectant  mother  into  your  confidence,  and  give  her  a 
plain,  common-sense  talk  of  such  character  as  will  dispel  her  morbid 
self-consciousness  and  give  her  something  wholesome  to  think  about, 
and  tell  her  what  to  do  to  maintain  a  condition  of  physical  and 
mental  well-being  during  the  state  of  gestation. 

The  creative  power  of  the  imagination  as  a  reliable,  potent  factor 
in  bringing  the  ideal  into  actualization  has  been  repeatedly  em- 
phasized by  our  ablest  psychologists,  and  as  a  therapeutic  resource 
this  psychological  fact  is  appreciated  today  as  never  before  in  the 
history  of  medicine. 

We  can  by  suggestion,  or  by  mental  pictures  impressed  upon  the 
brain  plasm  of  a  patient  who  has  sufficient  confidence  in  us  to  seek 
our  aid,  encourage  the  functional  activity  of  every  cell  of  her 
organism,  and  do  so  in  such  a  humane,  natural  manner  as  can  but 
evoke  the  appreciation  of  our  patient.  Moreover,  we  quiet  her 
nervousness,  assuage  her  fears,  dispel  her  gloomy  forebodings,  cor- 
rect functional  disturbances,  and  inspire  her  wdth  confidence  and  a 
determination  to  do  all  that  we  outline  for  her  in  the  way  of  con- 
forming to  the  physiological  requirements  of  health. 

In  general,  I  explain  to  the  expectant  mother  in  the  early  months 
of  gestation  that,  by  the  new  element  that  has  been  added  to  her 
personality,  the  function  of  every  cell  in  her  body  is  quickened  and 
encouraged  to  new  activity,  and  that  increased  vigor  of  both  mind 
and  body  should  be  the  consequence.  I  impress  on  her  that  this 
is  a  natural,  healthy  condition — a  physiological  state — and  that 
upon  her  obedience  to  the  mental  and  physical  laws  that  environ 
her  depend  the  best  growth  and  development  of  a  human  life  com- 
mitted to  her  care,  as  well  as  her  own  physical  and  mental  welfare 
and  happiness.  I  appeal  to  her  motherly  instincts  by  impressing 
on  her  the  sacredness  of  the  trust  that  is  by  nature  committed  to  her 
care,  and  get  her  to  realize  that  of  all  divinely  instituted  privileges 
that  of  motherhood  is  the  highest,  noblest,  and  best.  I  impress  on 
her  the  importance  of  beginning  the  training  of  her  offspring  nine 


PSYCHOTHERAPY    AND   THE   EXPECTANT   MOTHER.  245 

months  before  it  is  born  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  the  best  re- 
sults in  both  mental  and  physical  development.  I  explain  to  her 
that  the  more  or  less  morbid  subjective  feelings,  sensations,  and  de- 
sires that  sometimes  annoy  the  expectant  mother  are  but  the  recogni- 
tion by  her  nervous  system  of  the  new  role  that  it  is  called  upon  to 
play,  and  advise  her  that  this  must  be  taken  as  a  friendly  warn- 
ing or  notification  that  her  diet  must  be  of  nutritious,  easily  digested, 
and  easily  eliminated  consistency,  such  as  good  milk  and  butter, 
fresh  fruit  and  vegetables,  and  either  fresh  eggs  or  a  small  quantity 
of  meat  once  per  day.  I  give  her  sufficient  assurance  and  en- 
couragement to  have  her  make  effort  to  develop  a  mental  and 
physical  constitution  well  capacitated  for  the  training  and  nourish- 
ing of  her  offspring.  The  suggestion  of  the  importance  of  physical 
exercise  out-of-doors  in  the  fresh  air  and  sunshine  as  a  daily  pleas- 
ure and  duty,  as  well  as  the  wholesome  employment  of  her  faculties 
in  lines  of  useful  endeavor  and  achievement,  together  with  a  con- 
tented mind  not  ashamed  of  the  exalted  function  of  motherhood,  as 
a  means  of  obtaining  the  greatest  good  for  herself  and  offspring, 
should  never  be  omitted  by  the  physician  desiring  to  influence  his 
patient's  habits  of  thought  and  conduct  as  a  means  of  preventing 
the  disorders  that  so  frequently  manifest  themselves  in  this  class 
of  cases. 

Our  artificial  methods  of  living  so  frequently  encourage  habits 
that  are  contrary  to  the  conditions  which  produce  and  maintain  the 
highest  standard  of  protoplasmic  energy  in  the  cells  of  the  human 
organism,  that  most  of  the  functional  disorders  incident  to  the 
state  of  gestation  is  but  nature's  penalty  for  the  violation  of 
known  laws  of  health. 

Psychotherapy  apparently  plays  a  secondary  role  in  its  employ- 
ment to  get  the  patient  to  conform  to  the  physiological  and  physical 
requirements  of  health,  but  by  planting  a  conviction  in  the  mind 
of  the  patient  that  relief  from  certain  functional  disorders  will 
be  obtained,  as  the  individual  case  may  present,  we  give  the  patient 
the  benefit  of  both  the  psychic  and  physical  results  of  complying 
with  the  suggestion. 

As  physicians,  we  are  nothing  if  not  practical  men,  and  the  time 
has  come  when  we  should  take  our  place  as  leaders  and  teachers  of 


246  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

the  people,  as  well  as  that  of  students  of  pathology  and  prescribers 
of  medicine. 

It  will  be  an  unlucky  day  for  our  civilization  when  our  psycho- 
therapy becomes  so  allied  with  mysticism  and  religious  functions 
that  we  forget  to  conform  to  the  physical  or  physiological  require- 
ments of  health.  To  do  our  best  in  any  department  of  life,  one 
must  first  be  a  healthy  animal,  and  the  hunger  of  the  body  for  bread 
and  fruit  is  not  more  real  than  is  manifested  today  by  intelligent 
people  for  facts  and  principles  by  which  life  and  conduct  may  be 
guided.  Therefore,  our  psychotherapy  must  consist  of  psycho- 
logical, physiological,  and  educational  therapeutics  in  order  to  meet 
the  demands  of  the  intelligence  of  the  present  age. 

In  all  my  dealing  with  the  expectant  mother,  in  connection  with 
either  materia  medica  agencies  or  psychotherapy,  I  never  lose  an 
opportunity  to  implant  in  her  mind  the  idea  that,  by  her  conform- 
ance  to  the  regimen  outlined,  or  as  the  result  of  the  treatment  she 
is  following,  both  physiological  and  medicinal,  it  is  absolutely  im- 
possible for  her  to  do  else  than  have  a  safe  and  easy  delivery,  and 
such  will  be  the  case  by  virtue  of  the  creative  power  inherent  in 
the  cells  of  the  organism  that  my  suggestions  have  stimulated  into 
action,  provided  the  plasm  that  constitutes  the  physical  organism  is 
of  such  quality  as  to  receive  the  impress  of  my  suggestions  and 
execute  its  functions. 

With  all  the  advantages  of  psychotherapy,  what  folly  it  is  to 
ignore  either  the  physical  or  psychical  basis  of  life. 

For  the  relief  of  persistent  nausea  and  vomiting,  when  such 
patients  have  neglected  the  mental  and  physical  rules  by  which 
health  could  have  been  maintained,  or  where  the  milder  forms  of 
suggestion  are  not  practicable  on  account  of  the  temporary  illness 
of  the  patient,  suggestion  in  the  hypnotic  state  has  proven  effi- 
cacious upon  repeated  occasions  in  the  experience  of  the  writer. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 
THE  PSYCHOLOGIC  FACTOR  IN  OBSTETRICS. 

It  was  once  my  pleasure  to  be  present  at  a  medical  society  meet- 
ing at  which,  from  a  psychological  point  of  view,  the  discus- 
sions of  a  most  highly  interesting  and  instructive  paper  on  the  use 
of  "Forceps  in  Obstetrics"  interested  me  very  much. 

One  physician  related  his  experience  in  a  recent  case  where  he, 
with  another  physician  present,  had  found  it  necessary  to  make 
several  prolonged  and  strenuous  efforts  at  traction  upon  the  fore- 
coming  head  before  they  succeeded  in  a  delivery,  which  resulted  in 
a  badly  lacerated  cervix  and  a  most  completely  lacerated  perineum, 
stating  in  the  conclusion  of  his  remarks  that  he  found  it  frequently 
necessary  to  resort  to  the  use  of  forceps,  and  for  this  reason  he 
highly  appreciated  the  paper. 

Another  physician  referred  to  a  recent  high  forceps  operation, 
and  the  difficulty  in  applying  forceps  before  the  head  began  to 
descend  and  while  the  os  was  as  yet  but  partially  dilated. 

A  third  referred  to  the  frequency  with  which  he  had  found  it 
necessary  to  resort  to  the  use  of  forceps  in  obstetrics,  and  how  he 
dreaded  such  ordeals. 

Still  another  speaker  emphasized,  among  other  valuable  ideas, 
the  small  amount  of  traction  with  which  she  had  been  able  to  de- 
liver her  forceps  cases,  even  while  the  patient  had  been  thoroughly 
chloroformed. 

Among  those  who  discussed  the  paper  was  yet  another,  a  large, 
self-possessed,  and  magnificent-looking  physician,  a  little  past  fifty- 
five  I  should  judge,  who  stated  that  he  rarely,  if  ever,  had  to  resort 
to  the  use  of  forceps,  and  he  urged  the  advisibility  of  not  being 
in  a  hurry,  and  giving  the  natural  physiological  processes  time  to 
accomplish  their  work,  rather  than  hastily  resorting  to  instrumental 
assistance  or  interference. 

I  do  not  claim  to  be  perfectly  accurate  in  my  passing  references 

247 


248  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

to  the  discussion  to  which  I  have  referred,  but  the  features  brought 
out  in  those  discussions  illustrate  conclusively  the  importance  of 
more  attention  being  paid  to  the  psychologic  factor  in  obstetric 
practice. 

It  was  quite  evident  that  the  large,  self-possessed  physician  to 
whom  I  referred  did  appreciate  the  psychologic  factor,  and  hence 
" rarely,  if  ever,"  had  to  resort  to  the  use  of  forceps.  It  was  also 
equally  evident  that  some  of  the  physicians  present  were  rather  in- 
clined to  be  nervous,  and  unconsciously  had  been  a  potent  factor 
in  producing  the  condition  in  their  patients  which  necessitated  the 
use  of  instruments. 

More  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  practice  of  medicine,  in 
obstetrics  the  physician  should  be  well-poised  and  self-possessed, 
and  should  maintain  a  quiet  demeanor,  keeping  his  mental  and 
nervous  equilibrium  well  conserved  in  the  presence  of  an  excitable, 
frightened,  and  nervous  patient. 

In  the  early  years  of  my  professional  work  I  assisted  three  times 
in  the  instrumental  delivery  of  a  lady  who  at  the  time  of  her 
fourth  delivery  fell  into  my  hands.  Knowing  the  difficulty  that  she 
had  experienced  with  her  previous  deliveries,  and  seeing  the  de- 
pression that  her  condition  and  the  approaching  ordeal  produced 
upon  her,  I  had  her  come  to  see  me  quite  frequently  and  positively 
assured  her  that  I  had  her  on  a  treatment  that  would  insure  a  safe 
and  easy  delivery,  and  before  her  confinement  I  had  eliminated  all 
element  of  fear.  When  I  was  called  to  see  her  at  the  time  of 
delivery,  after  making  a  careful  diagnosis,  I  again  positively  as- 
sured her  that  it  was  absolutely  impossible  for  her  to  do  otherwise 
than  get  along  nicely,  and  I  have  never  attended  an  easier  delivery 
than  hers. 

Where  it  has  been  possible,  it  has  been  my  habit  to  see  the 
prospective  mothers  often  enough  before  parturition  to  keep  well 
en  rapport  with  them.  I  have  frequently  placed  them  in  the 
suggestive  state  two  or  three  times  during  the  last  weeks  of 
pregnancy  in  order  to  insure  a  perfect  psychological  attitude  at 
the  time  of  delivery. 

The  influence  of  the  mind  upon  metabolism  is  well  established. 
To  keep  our  prospective  mothers  in  a  buoyant,  hopeful,  cheerful 


PSYCHOLOGIC    FACTOR    IN    OBSTETRICS.  249 

state  of  mind  helps  to  prevent  albuminuria,  eclampsia,  and  other 
complications.  All  other  essentials  requisite  to  the  well-being  of  our 
patient  should  not,  of  course,  be  overlooked.  A  wholesome  vege- 
table diet,  with  milk  and  eggs,  as  well  as  regular  out-door  exercise, 
should  be  insisted  upon. 

When  called  to  see  your  patient  when  in  labor  manifest  a  kindly 
interest  in  her  well-being,  and  make  her  feel  that  you  are  kind, 
firm,  and  self-sufficient  by  your  conduct  in  her  presence.  After 
carefully  making  your  diagnosis,  do  all  you  can  to  calm  her  spirit, 
assuage  her  fears,  and  inspire  her  with  confidence  in  your  ability 
and  intentions  to  do  what  is  best  for  her.  Assume  absolute  com- 
mand of  the  situation,  and  allow  no  environing  influence,  such 
as  overanxious  expressions  of  friends,  to  influence  her.  Let  her 
feel  the  masterful,  helpful,  encouraging  influence  of  your  person- 
ality, as  well  as  get  the  benefit  of  your  kindly  assistance. 

When  the  members  of  the  medical  profession  become  awake 
to  the  importance  of  the  psychological  factor  in  obstetrics,  forceps 
deliveries  and  lacerated  cervices  and  perinei  will  be  far  less  fre- 
quent. 

While  in  a  southern  city  four  years  ago  a  well-known  physician 
requested  me  to  see  with  him  a  woman  in  labor,  and  I  quote  the 
following  from  his  report  of  the  case:  "About  two  o'clock  in  the 
morning  I  was  called  to  Mrs.  W.,  a  young  primipara,  who  was 
frightened,  exceedingly  nervous,  and  hard  to  control.  Two  hours 
later  Doctor  Munro  came  at  my  request  and  demonstrated  the  ef- 
ficacy of  suggestion  in  a  most  satisfactory  manner  by  substituting 
for  the  extreme  nervousness  a  condition  of  placid  repose.  The 
rapid  heart  beats  became  normal,  the  patient  slept  peacefully  be- 
tween contractions  and  'bore  down'  to  her  pains  without  complaint. 
It  proved  especially  efficacious  during  that  nagging  stage  of  dila- 
tion. Later  on,  with  the  aid  of  only  a  few  drops  of  chloroform, 
the  case  was  conducted  to  a  finish  with  perfect  satisfaction  both 
to  myself,  my  patient,  and  her  friends.  I  am  fully  convinced  that 
when  physicians  learn  to  practice  intelligently  what  for  ages  we 
have  all  been  practicing  ignorantly— i.  e.,  suggestive  therapeutics— 
the  obstetric  couch  will  be  robbed  of  its  horrors." 


250  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

TECHNIC  OF  APPLICATION. 

Labor  is  well  established,  the  os  is  dilated  to  the  size  of  a  fifty- 
cent  piece,  more  or  less,  and  the  contractions  and  general  condition 
indicate  that  there  is  to  be  no  cessation  of  symptoms  until  your 
patient  is  delivered. 

She  is  begging  you  to  do  something  for  her.  You  have  made 
out  your  diagnosis  and  reassured  your  patient,  but  now  the  severity 
of  her  symptoms  is  such  that  she  feels  that  she  must  have  help. 
You  have  the  reputation  of  using  chloroform,  and  she  would  not 
be  satisfied  unless  you  did  use  chloroform.  You  are  waiting  for  the 
right  psychological  moment — she  has  patiently  endured  her  suf- 
ferings, and  feels  that  she  can  hold  out  no  longer  without  help  that 
she  has  not  received.  You  have  assured  her  that  she  is  doing  well, 
that  every  indication  is  for  a  safe  delivery,  and  that  you  are  going 
to  use  chloroform,  so  that  she  will  not  suffer.  The  urgency  of  the 
occasion  grows  more  imperative  and  you  decide  to  make  another 
digital  examination. 

As  this  is  completed,  say,  "All  right,  madam,  be  patient  and 
bear  strong  and  hard  to  the  next  pain,  and  just  as  that  leaves  you 
I  will  give  you  chloroform,  so  that  you  will  get  well  under  its 
influence  by  the  time  another  contraction  comes,  and  you  will  not 
suffer  any  more." 

Just  as  the  contraction  has  expended  its  energy,  synchronously 
with  the  first  inspiration  after  a  long  bearing  down,  shake  about 
thirty  drops  of  chloroform  upon  a  handkerchief  in  a  paper  cone 
or  which  you  have  placed  in  a  tumbler,  and,  placing  that  close  over 
her  nose  and  mouth,  suggest  to  her  strongly,  "Breathe  this  down 
now,  and  go  to  sleep."  She  takes  a  deep  inspiration,  and  you 
quickly  and  strongly  suggest,  "Breathe  it  in  again,  and  now  again, 
away  down  deep." 

The  three  deep  inspirations  from  the  thirty  drops  of  chloroform 
administered  in  this  way  at  this  particular  moment  have  sufficient 
physiological  effect  to  annihilate  completely  the  receding  contrac- 
tion, and  these  three  deep  inspirations  in  succession,  together  with 
the  physiological  effect  of  the  chloroform,  secure  the  thorough  re- 
laxation of  your  patient.  She  is  now  in  a  receptive  condition,  and 


PSYCHOLOGIC    FACTOR    IN   OBSTETRICS.  251 

you  must  quickly,  but  emphatically  and  distinctly,  follow  this  up 
with  your  suggestions  to  get  her  into  a  deeper  suggestible  condition 
or  into  a  hypnotic  state. 

So,  removing  the  cone  or  glass  about  two  inches  from  her  nose, 
you  proceed  to  suggest,  "Now,  go  to  sleep,  sleep,  sleep,  sleep.  Now 
you  feel  quiet  all  over.  Your  muscles  are  relaxed.  Everything  is 
dark  to  you.  You  do  not  hear  anything  but  my  voice.  You  are 
drowsy  and  sleepy,  s-o-o-o-o  sleepy.  You  feel  the  sleep  coming 
over  you.  You  are  going  to  sleep,  sleep,  sleep,  sleep.  By  the  time 
I  count  ten  you  will  be  fast  asleep.  One,  two,  three,  four,  five,  six, 
seven,  eight,  nine,  ten,  and  you  are  asleep,  fast  asleep.  By  the  time 
I  count  five  you  will  be  sound  and  dead  asleep.  One  two,  three, 
four,  five,  and  you  are  asleep,  fast  asleep,  sound  asleep,  dead 
asleep,  and  you  will  not  awaken  now  until  I  tell  you.  Every  second 
your  sleep  becomes  sounder  and  sounder,  and  deeper  and  deeper. 
You  will  not  hear  anything,  or  feel  anything,  or  know  anything,  ex- 
cept what  I  tell  you.  Sleep  on  quietly  now  until  I  awaken  you." 

Your  patient  is  now  in  a  deeper  condition  of  suggestibility,  but 
you  want  to  take  an  additional  precaution  to  secure  more  thorough 
relaxation,  so,  without  the  addition  of  more  chloroform,  you  bring 
the  cone  or  glass  closer  to  her  nose  and  suggest,  "Breathe  deeply, 
deeper  yet,  once  again  away  down  deep.  There,  now,  you  are 
thoroughly  relaxed." 

Then,  stroking  her  forehead  gently,  make  suggestions  about  as 
follows:  "Sleep  on  quietly.  Now  your  nerves  are  getting  steady, 
and  quiet,  and  strong — steady,  and  quiet,  and  strong  all  over.  By 
the  time  I  count  ten  the  last  bit  of  nervousness  will  be  gone,  and 
your  nerves  will  be  steady,  and  quiet,  and  strong  all  over.  One, 
two,  three,  four,  five,  six,  seven,  eight,  nine,  ten,  and  your  nerves 
are  steady,  and  quiet,  and  strong  all  over." 

"Now,  on  account  of  the  sedative  effect  of  the  chloroform  upon 
you,  you  feel  all  pain,  or  aching,  or  soreness,  or  hurting  about  your 
abdomen,  or  back,  or  womb  going  away ;  you  are  getting  easier  and 
easier,  and  by  the  time  I  count  five  you  will  be  perfectly  easy  and 
not  suffer  any  more.  One,  two,  three,  four,  five,  and  you  are 
perfectly  easy. 

"Now  your  labor  will  be  regular  and  normal ;  you  will  labor  hard, 


252  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

but  will  feel  no  pain.  Your  contractions  will  be  strong,  the  mouth 
of  your  womb  will  dilate  and  open  easier,  but  you  will  feel  no  pain. 

"Sleep  on,  and  when  the  next  contraction  comes  reach  up  your 
hands,  and  bear  down  strong  and  long,  but  you  will  feel  only  a  pres- 
sure— you  will  not  experience  any  pain." 

As  the  contraction  again  becomes  evident,  say  to  your  patient, 
"Bear  down  hard  now ;  it  will  not  hurt  you.  That  is  fine ;  stronger 
yet,  more  yet.  There,  now,  take  more  chloroform  and  go  into  a 
deeper  sleep." 

Here  you  put  about  twenty  drops  of  chloroform  on  the  handker- 
chief in  the  cone  or  glass  and  make  a  few  additional  suggestions 
about  as  follows:  "Sleep,  sleep,  sleep,  sleep,  breathe  deeply,  sleep 
soundly.  Now  sleep  on  quietly  until  the  next  contraction,  and  then 
don 't  wake  up — just  reach  up  your  hands  and  bear  down,  but  sleep 
on." 

As  this  contraction  recedes  you  give  about  ten  drops  more  of 
chloroform  and  make  a  few  additional  suggestions. 

By  that  time  your  patient  is  sufficiently  amenable  to  suggestion 
to  the  extent  that  I  have  frequently  had  patients  go  two  hours  in 
labor  without  more  than  the  slightest  complaint,  getting  them  to 
relax  thoroughly  after  each  contraction  and  making  a  few  addi- 
tional suggestions. 

Toward  the  latter  part  of  the  second  stage  of  labor,  with  the  last 
two  or  three  expulsive  pains,  it  is  best  that  you  give  chloroform  at 
the  beginning  of  the  contraction  for  its  physiological  effect,  using 
it  freely  and  effectively,  as  it  enables  you  to  manipulate  the  head 
and  perineum,  and  render  such  assistance  as  best  to  prevent  lacera- 
tion. 

I  have  yet  to  see  the  first  case  of  post-partum  hemorrhage  in  a 
case  where  suggestion  was  used,  though  I  have  always  followed  the 
expulsion  of  the  child  with  my  left  hand  and  grasped  the  fundus  of 
the  uterus  after  Crede's  method.  Post-partum  hemorrhage  is 
largely  a  nervous  phenomenon,  and  properly  directing  and  con- 
trolling the  psychic  factor  is  a  safeguard  against  it,  though  I  never 
neglect  any  other  precaution,  and  consequently  I  have  never  had 
any  trouble  on  this  score. 

A  rigid  os  indicates  an  irritable  involuntary  nervous  system,  and 


PSYCHOLOGIC    FACTOR   IN   OBSTETRICS.  253 

it  rapidly  disappears  when  the  psychic  factor  is  properly  directed 
as  above  outlined.  Your  success  will  be  in  direct  ratio  to  the  extent 
to  which  you  secure  thorough  relaxation  of  the  patient  and  properly 
make  suggestions. 

The  patient  need  not  necessarily  be  asleep ;  a  merely  partial  sub- 
conscious condition  is  attended  with  excellent  results,  provided  you 
have  the  confidence  and  co-operation  of  your  patient,  and  this  it  is 
your  privilege  to  gain  very  quickly  after  you  enter  the  room. 

A  nervous  physician  is  undoubtedly  a  menace  to  the  welfare  of 
an  obstetric  patient,  for  nervousness  begets  nervousness  and  fear 
begets  fear.  Self-control  and  self-confidence  on  the  part  of  the  ac- 
coucheur carry,  all  unconsciously,  a  wonderfully  helpful  influence. 

Don't  neglect  any  other  therapeutic  resource.  An  obstetric  pa- 
tient of  mine  had  two  sisters,  each  of  whom  died  of  eclampsia  in 
her  first  labor.  The  effect  of  such  a  family  record  was  most  de- 
pressing upon  her.  During  the  last  weeks  of  pregnancy  I  saw  her 
every  few  days,  and  assured  her  positively  that  the  treatment  on 
which  I  had  her  would  prevent  any  such  occurrence.  She  was  a 
plethoric,  full-blooded  woman,  and  the  secundines  were  removed 
with  practically  no  hemorrhage  at  all.  A  severe  headache,  extreme 
nervousness,  and  rapid,  full  pulse  which  followed  required  not  only 
large  doses  of  veratrum  hypodermatically,  but  free  bleeding  also,  as 
well  as  suggestion  in  the  form  of  reassurance,  persuasion,  and  en- 
couragement, with  large  doses  of  calomel  and  jalap. 

To  a  patient  who  had  aborted  after  four  months,  and  had  con- 
siderable hemorrhage  and  was  almost  pulseless,  I  suggested  strongly 
and  loudly,  upon  making  an  examination,  "You  will  be  all  right. 
Be  brave,  madam;  you  will  have  no  trouble,  etc.,"  though  I  pro- 
ceeded to  clear  and  pack  her  uterus. 

In  a  case  of  twins  I  "chloroformed"  my  patient  with  alcohol  ad- 
ministered by  inhalation  and  suggestion,  and  used  forceps  on  the 
first  child  and  internal  version  on  the  second  with  perfect  suc- 
cess. 

Ten  drops  of  chloroform  given  to  a  patient  after  each  contrac- 
tion while  she  is  thoroughly  relaxed,  passive,  eyes  closed,  and 
breathing  rhythmically  through  her  mouth,  and  suggestions  made 
in  a  monotone,  conversational  way,  to  quiet  nervousness  and  render 


254  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

the  patient  conscious  that  something  was  being  done  for  her,  is  at- 
tended with  excellent  results  without  any  farther  effort  to  induce 
hypnosis. 

The  confidence  of  the  patient  in  her  physician  can  be  consider- 
ably augmented  by  properly  directing  the  psychic  factor  in  ob- 
stetrics, and  the  welfare  and  safety  of  the  patient  are  rendered  far 
more  certain. 

In  a  case  of  an  abortion  at  five  months,  before  the  expulsion  of 
the  uterine  contents,  which  was  attended  with  much  hemorrhage,  I 
packed  the  vagina  and  put  on  T-bandage,  hypnotized  the  patient, 
made  appropriate  suggestions,  and  went  away,  returning  in  three 
hours  to  find  that  the  patient  had  been  easy,  but  upon  removal  of 
the  packing  both  fetus  and  secundines  came  away  together. 

A  patient  who  once  has  the  assistance  of  a  physician  who  properly 
directs  the  psychic  factor  will  instinctively  feel  that  she  has  never 
before  had  the  right  attention  in  her  previous  confinements. 

A  number  of  physicians  of  my  acquaintance  have  been  able  to 
execute  successfully  the  above  described  methods  greatly  to  the 
satisfaction  of  themselves  and  patient. 

Your  success  in  obstetrics,  as  in  all  other  classes  of  work,  will  be 
in  direct  ratio  to  the  integrity  and  stability  of  your  patient's  nerve 
and  brain  plasm  on  the  one  hand,  and  your  ability  to  present  sug- 
gestion properly  on  the  other. 

The  ideas  suggested  in  this  chapter  are  of  value  to  the  individual 
physician  in  direct  ratio  to  his  ability  to  appropriate  and  use 
them. 


CHAPTER  XV. 
THE  GUIDANCE  OF  THE  SEXUAL  INSTINCT. 

The  importance  of  a  more  intelligent  effort  on  the  part  of  the 
medical  profession  directed  toward  the  guidance  of  the  sexual 
instinct  has  assumed  such  a  prominent  relation  to  the  successful 
employment  of  psychotherapy  in  the  treatment  of  the  psycho- 
neuroses,  as  has  been  clearly  demonstrated  by  the  work  of  Freud,  of 
Vienna,  and  Jung,  of  Zurich,  that  no  work  purporting  to  be  an  elu- 
cidation of  the  subject  can  be  considered  complete  unless  this  phase 
is  also  presented.  The  present  status  of  the  subject  is  such  that  it 
would  be  most  reprehensible  and  cowardly  to  dodge  the  issue  on  ac- 
count of  the  fear  of  antagonism  by  those  who  adhere  to  conflicting 
opinions. 

That  abnormalities  of  the  sexual  functions  are  among  the  most 
common  causes  of  nervous  and  mental  diseases,  and  that  insanity, 
suicide,  and  death  are  often  the  final  outcome,  is  today  recognized 
by  all  who  have  given  this  question  thoughtful  consideration. 

At  the  present  time  we  are  not  content  to  say  that  some  "func- 
tional disorder"  is  the  cause  of  an  abnormal  nervous  and  mental 
condition,  but  we  seek  to  discover  the  cause  of  this  disorder,  pre- 
sented as  a  part  of  the  complication  to  be  treated. 

Freud  has  brought  forth  a  most  convincing  array  of  facts,  based 
upon  actual  clinical  experience,  showing  that  the  obstacles  of  a 
normal  sexual  life,  or  unhappy  love,  are  frequently  the  cause  of 
violent  disturbances  of  the  mind,  and  that  often,  as  the  result  of 
these  obstacles,  mental  disorders  appear  after  a  continued  derange- 
ment of  the  organic  functions. 

Such  obstacles,  Freud  considers,  are  the  most  important  causes  of 
the  functional  psychoneuroses,  which  have  heretofore  been  con- 
sidered to  be  the  result  of  a  constitutional  taint.  It  is  his  con- 
clusion that  these  obstacles  are  due  more  to  the  inherited  envi- 
roning and  educational  influences  to  which  the  individual  has  been 

255 


256  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

subjected  through  life  than  to  an  inherited  weakness  of  the  physical 
organism  at  the  time  of  birth. 

This  viewpoint  is  not  to  depreciate  the  inherited  physical  qualities 
or  characteristics  which  we  bring  into  the  world  as  an  endowment, 
but  to  give  recognition  to  the  potency  of  the  influences  brought  to 
bear  upon  the  human  mind  and  body  by  environment  and  educa- 
tion after  we  are  born,  and  to  emphasize  the  importance  of  such  in- 
fluences in  the  determination  of  the  mental  and  physical  character- 
istics exhibited  by  the  individual  as  a  consequence. 

With  these  preliminary  remarks,  let  us  consider  the  facts  per- 
taining to  the  guidance  of  the  sexual  instinct  as  a  preparatory 
measure  to  a  useful,  wholesome,  happy  life  of  the  individual  on  the 
one  hand,  and  as  a  preventive  measure  against  untold  unhappiness, 
with  its  consequent  derangement  of  the  normal  functions  of  mind 
and  body,  resulting  in  mental  and  physical  deterioration,  suicide, 
divorce,  death  and  insanity,  on  the  other. 

This  discussion  is  not  intended  to  cover  the  influence  of  patho- 
logical processes  resulting  from  venereal  disorders,  which  are  al- 
ready recognized  as  one  of  the  most  potent  causes  of  the  more 
serious  nervous  and  mental  diseases,  nor  to  go  into  the  abortion 
question,  which  has  assumed  the  role  of  one  of  the  most  important 
problems  confronting  our  American  civilization.  That  story  is  best 
read  in  the  history  of  a  large  proportion  of  the  cases  recorded  in 
our  annual  list  of  suicides,  insanities,  death  records,  causes  of  the 
surgical  operations  in  the  numerous  hospitals,  and  in  the  large  in- 
fantile mortality  list  annually  turned  out  by  many  of  our  metro- 
politan cities.  The  results  of  physical  degeneracy  resulting  from 
venereal  disorders  must  not  stop  here.  It  is  a  large  contributing 
factor  in  the  annual  mortality  list  resulting  from  tuberculosis,  pneu- 
monia, enteric  fever,  cancer,  Bright 's  disease,  and  many  other  acute 
affections.  That  venereal  diseases  lessen  the  resistive  powers  of  the 
individual,  and  render  him  comparatively  an  easy  victim,  and  in  all 
other  ways  handicap  his  usefulness  in  life,  is  not  in  the  least  degree 
questioned  by  our  ablest  clinicians  at  the  present  time. 

In  this  era  of  enlightened  civilization  it  is  not  enough  to  say  that 
this  or  the  other  parasite,  microbe,  or  abnormal  cell  was  the  cause 
of  the  physical  manifestations  of  disease  or  pathological  process 


GUIDANCE   OF   THE   SEXUAL   INSTINCT.  257 

presented.  We  must  go  back  farther  than  that.  We  must  consider 
the  causation  of  the  cause  exhibited  in  the  gross  pathological  mani- 
festation of  diseased  processes,  and  in  thousands  upon  thousands 
of  instances  the  primary  cause,  as  every  intelligent,  conscientious 
physician  must  admit,  is  to  be  found  only  in  the  failure  of  the  in- 
dividual to  live  up  to  his  highest  privileges  on  account  of  the  lack 
of  proper  education  in  early  life  to  equip  him  to  be  qualified  for 
the  guidance  of  his  sexual  instinct. 

One  who  seeks  to  better  humanity  by  giving  expression  to  his 
ideas  concerning  the  guidance  of  the  sexual  instinct  should  be  pre- 
pared by  broad  experience  and  deep  study.  He  should  know  men 
and  women  as  we  find  them  in  the  common,  every-day  walks  of  life, 
from  the  lowest  to  the  highest,  and  deal  with  facts  as  they  are,  con- 
sidering sexual  laws  that  govern  the  entire  race  of  mankind;  for 
otherwise  he  is  not  prepared  to  speak  out  on  this  subject,  with 
opinions  based  upon  real  conditions  and  unprejudiced  researches  in 
the  laws  of  natural  morality,  the  necessary  requisites  in  qualifying 
one  to  give  advice  which  can  be  followed  because  in  perfect  harmony 
with  the  laws  of  nature. 

People  should  be  made  to  understand  that  nature's  laws  are  God's 
laws ;  that  the  sexual  instinct  is  a  part  of  human  nature,  and  is  not 
in  itself  immoral;  that  a  love  connection  is  not  in  itself  immoral, 
but  that  it  may  lead  to  unhappy  consequences  as  the  result  of  social 
conflicts.  The  unhappy  consequences  of  ignorance  in  regard  to  the 
performance  of  the  sexual  act,  even  in  marriage,  is  in  evidence  in 
the  every-day  experience  of  the  observing  physician.  To  enumerate 
these  illustrations  would  require  more  pages  than  are  to  be  devoted 
to  this  chapter. 

Here  is  a  young  man  who  applies  for  the  treatment  of  gonorrhea 
one  month  after  his  marriage,  stating  that  his  wife  had  been  con- 
taminated by  the  infection.  He  "thought  he  had  been  cured," 
and  begs  that  his  wife  be  kept  in  ignorance  of  the  nature  of  her 
disease.  A  pus  tube  operation,  and  the  marred  happiness  of  one 
of  the  purest  and  sweetest  of  the  human  race  is  likely  to  be  the 
consequence  of  this  disastrous  blunder  on  the  part  of  a  boy  who 
would  gladly  have  sacrificed  life  itself  rather  than  infect  his  in- 
nocent wife. 


258  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

The  sexual  function  of  the  natural  instincts  is  the  strongest  of 
all  the  bodily  appetites.  '  is  a  most  important  source  of  happi- 
ness and  health,  and  its  in,  1  performance  exercises  the  most 
beneficent  influence  upon  all  other  bodily  and  mental  functions. 
The  want  of  the  gratification  of  ti  :  normal  sexual  instinct  is  a 
source  of  deep  moral  and  mental  suffering,  lessens  the  love  of  life, 
and  induces  a  sad  and  despondent  existence. 

The  participation  of  the  opposite  sexes  in  the  sexual  relation 
through  the  attraction  of  love  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  phe- 
nomena of  existence,  and,  when  properly  conducted,  is  in  no  sense 
to  be  construed  as  vulgar  or  disgusting,  which  religious  ascetics 
have  described  as  lust. 

Monogamy  is  the  ideal  of  the  sexual  relation  for  all  civilized 
races,  but  its  performance  without  personal  sympathy  is  only  a 
physiological  function  as  a  means  of  purely  animal  gratification, 
and,  whether  in  or  out  of  marriage  bonds,  it  is  degraded  into  lust. 
But  where  the  psychic  elements  of  the  two  personalities  are  in 
perfect  harmony,  where  the  joining  links  in  the  chain  of  love 
are  present,  and  where  personal  sympathy  exists,  the  sexual  func- 
tion is  something  more  than  the  expression  of  physiological  desire. 
It  is  also  the  gratification  of  the  desire  to  be  in  the  embrace  of 
and  in  intimate  contact  with  the  one  beloved,  and,  not  only  is 
orgasm  evoked,  but  the  relation  strengthens  the  bond  of  personal 
sympathy,  conduces  to  health  and  happiness,  and  is  the  highest 
expression  of  true  love.  "Without  this  higher  attraction  it  is,  as 
a  consequence,  only  a  temporary  relation,  and  in  no  sense  worthy 
of  performance  by  the  self-respecting  individual.  Under  such  con- 
ditions, instead  of  being  attended  by  salutary  results  to  the  par- 
ticipants, the  effects  are  those  that  leave  the  self-respecting  person 
with  a  feeling  of  disgust — weakness,  nervous  irritability,  and  a 
feeling  of  self-condemnation.  Whether  in  or  out  of  the  marriage 
relation,  the  sexual  function  under  such  inharmonious  conditions 
is  prostitution  pure  and  simple,  and  is  degrading  to  mind  and 
body.  When  engaged  in  between  husband  and  wife  while  either 
is  an  unwilling  participant,  it  is  nothing  more  or  less  than  legal- 
ized prostitution. 

For  a  husband  to  force  the  act  upon  a  self-sacrificing  wife  who 


GUIDANCE   OF   THE   SEXUAL   INSTINCT.  259 

feels  that,  though  unpleasant  to  her,  she  is>  under  obligation  to 
yield  to  his  desires,  which  she  prefe^I  rather  than  to  cause  him 
to  have  an  excuse  to  seek  sexua'^'tftisf  action  elsewhere,  and  he 
forces  her  thus  to  submit  to  him,  though  positively  detrimental  to 
her  health  and  happiness — uwfter  such  conditions  the  sexual  func- 
tion becomes  an  act  of  forced  legalized  prostitution  in  the  fullest 
sense  of  the  expression. 

My  association  with  several  thousand  physicians,  and  the  infor- 
mation communicated  to  me  by  many  of  them  in  seeking  aid  for 
some  psychoneurotic  manifestation,  has  coincided  with  my  own  ob- 
servations that  there  are  many  married  women  who  do  not  enjoy 
their  conjugal  relation  with  their  husbands,  and  that  this  is  one  of 
the  most  fruitful  causes  of  unhappy  domestic  relations  extant,  re- 
sulting in  various  functional  disorders  of  the  female  generative 
organs,  with  its  attendant  insomnia,  nervousness,  and  general 
psychoneurotic  manifestations.  Occasionally  a  case  is  presented 
where  the  most  complete  happiness  in  the  conjugal  relation  can  not 
be  obtained  because  the  psychic  life  of  the  woman  is  under  the 
control  of  religious  emotion,  which  is,  on  account  of  the  psychical 
correlation  of  religious  emotion  and  the  sexual  instinct,  substituted 
for  the  normal  sexual  enjoyment  which  the  wife  should  obtain  from 
her  husband. 

When  a  female  religious  enthusiast  has  her  psychic  life  abnor- 
mally influenced,  her  emotions  being  unduly  stirred  by  her  min- 
ister, and  also  enjoys  the  sexual  relation  with  her  husband,  the 
sexual  act  is  then  more  of  a  physiological  response  to  the  minister's 
psychic  stimulation  than  the  normal  reaction  to  the  personality 
of  her  husband,  and  intercourse  under  such  conditions  is  most 
disastrous  to  both  mind  and  body.  She  is,  in  reality,  playing  a 
dual  role — psychically  enjoying  her  minister,  physically  enjoying 
her  husband— and  this  abnormal,  unnatural  situation  degrades  her 
marital  relation,  in  effect,  to  an  act  of  prostitution.  The  over- 
expenditure  of  nerve  energy  from  this  double  situation  entails  a 
draught  upon  her  reserved  forces  in  excess  of  her  recuperative 
powers,  while  she  is  in  perfect  innocence.  But  the  violation  of 
natural  laws  in  innocence  and  ignorance  are  no  less  followed  by 
nature's  penalty  than  if  violated  intentionally.  She  becomes  dis- 


260  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

qualified  for  her  domestic  duties  and  social  responsibilities,  be- 
comes neurasthenic,  psychasthenic,  or  hysterical,  and  this  result- 
ing train  of  psychoneurotic  symptoms  or  functional  disorders 
sometimes  leads  to  insanity  or  bodily  sickness,  and  even  death  may 
result  indirectly  therefrom. 

Women  are  frequently  observed  who  come  out  of  a  series  of 
prolonged  emotional  religious  services  weak,  nervous,  pale,  and 
bedridden,  who  passively  yield  to  the  physical  and  psychical  re- 
action of  such  dissipations  feeling  that  they  have  conscientiously 
performed  their  duty  in  "the  Lord's  work."  On  one  occasion, 
when  explaining  to  a  religious  devotee  the  disastrous  effect  of  an 
emotional  sermon,  telling  her  that  I  believed  death  itself  had  fre- 
quently been  caused  by  such  emotional  preaching,  she  replied  that 
"it  would  be  a  lovely  way  to  die."  Her  response  reminded  me 
of  the  answer  given  by  a  mentally  decrepit  old  man  seventy-six 
years  of  age,  who,  when  told  that  if  he  was  forced  to  satisfy  the 
sexual  requirements  of  a  young  woman  twenty-six  years  of  age, 
whom  he  was  endeavoring  to  marry,  for  two  weeks  it  would  kill 
him,  replied  that  if  he  could  live  with  her  for  two  weeks  he  would 
prefer  to  die  rather  than  live  twenty  years  without  her.  The 
manifestations  of  the  sexual  instinct  exhibited  by  this  woman  in 
her  religious  emotion  and  by  this  man's  desire  to  gratify  his  ani- 
mal passion  are  here  strikingly  similar. 

Religious  excitement  encourages  masturbation  in  both  boys  and 
girls.  To  excite  the  nervous  system  in  one  way  encourages  ab- 
normal excitability  in  another.  A  young  woman  whose  parents 
were  religious  enthusiasts  confessed  that  she  had  frequently  been 
stirred  by  a  religious  service,  and  as  a  result  masturbated  and  felt 
that  she  had  done  nothing  wrong.  The  temporary  relaxation  fol- 
lowing orgasm  relieved  the  nervous  tension  induced  by  the  emo- 
tional religious  service,  and  she  felt  decidedly  more  comfortable. 

The  sexual  instinct  frequently  manifests  itself  in  emotional  re- 
ligious meetings  by  a  nervous  young  woman  becoming  ardently 
interested  in  the  religious  welfare  of  some  particular  young  man. 

A  bride  of  two  months  became  very  much  aroused  by  religious 
emotion,  and,  as  she  went  forward  to  shake  hands  with  the  minister, 
her  young  husband  rushed  to  her  and  before  the  entire  assembly 


GUIDANCE   OP   THE   SEXUAL   INSTINCT.  261 

kissed  her  passionately  for  a  half  dozen  or  more  times.  The  sexual 
instinct  here  manifested  seemed  to  get  beyond  his  control,  but  the 
unthinking  audience  considered  this  manifestation  a  beautiful  ex- 
hibition of  his  Christian  spirit.  In  many  instances  a  young  woman 
has  mistaken  the  religious  exaltation  for  what  in  fact  was  nothing 
less  than  ungratified  sexual  desire.  To  what  extent  religious  feel- 
ings depend  upon  physiological  conditions  has  not  yet  been  defi- 
nitely ascertained. 

A  physician  on  one  occasion  asked  me  in  confidence  why  his 
wife  had  grown  so  indifferent  to  his  approaches  in  the  sexual  rela- 
tion. Upon  questioning  him,  I  found  that  she  was  an  ardent  sup- 
porter of  a  worn-out  religious  creed,  around  which  her  entire 
psychic  life  centered,  and  one  which  his  scientific  training  had 
caused  him  to  repudiate.  The  psychic  inharmony  existing  in  his 
marital  relation  had  robbed  him  of  all  happiness  to  be  obtained 
from  this  source,  and  he,  still  endeavoring  to  be  loyal  to  her,  was 
despondent,  unhappy,  and  miserable. 

Upon  the  discovery  of  a  clandestine  relation  existing  between 
a  married  man  and  a  woman  who  was  not  his  wife,  I  questioned 
him:  "How  can  a  man  of  your  esthetic  development  live  that 
way?"  His  response  was:  "This  woman  loves  me,  but  my  wife 
don't,  and  I'd  sooner  be  dead  than  live  a  loveless  life."  He  had 
a  beautiful  home,  surrounded  by  shade  trees  and  flowers,  and  three 
children  were  the  result  of  his  unwise  marriage,  but,  rather  than 
humiliate  them  by  divorce  proceedings,  he  had  found  a  solution 
of  the  situation  in  a  manner  which  met  the  requirements  of  his 
sexual  instincts,  contrary  to  the  laws  of  morality  and  civilization. 

To  a  highly  educated  girl,  showing  evidence  of  having  had  the 
home  influences  and  social  standing  unexcelled  by  those  to  be 
found  anywhere,  who  was  living  in  a  house  of  prostitution,  I  put 
the  question,  ' '  Why  are  you  here  ? ' '  The  story  of  her  life  showed 
that  she  was  seduced  by  a  man  to  whom  she  was  engaged,  having 
yielded  to  him  out  of  the  purest  love,  and  after  a  most  bitter  dis- 
appointment had  sought  to  drown  her  sorrow  by  plunging  deeper 
into  it,  and  finally  had  landed  in  the  lowest  depths.  Many  such 
examples  don't  mean  to  do  wrong  in  the  beginning.  They  are 
those  who  were  not  properly  educated  in  self-preservation,  and, 


262  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

without  the  necessary  training  in  the  guidance  of  the  sexual  in- 
stinct, had  committed  serious  blunders  in  the  pursuit  of  happiness 
as  best  they  knew.  There  are  thousands  of  such  cases  that  are 
martyrs  to  the  ignorance  that  is  prevalent  on  account  of  the  false 
modesty  exhibited  by  educators  in  regard  to  the  laws  of  natural 
morality. 

Healthy  physiological  functions  and  demands  make  the  founda- 
tions for  sexual  feelings.  They  belong  to  all  healthful,  normal 
human  beings  as  a  part  of  human  nature,  and  are  not  sinful,  nor 
do  they  exist  in  opposition  to  all  that  is  noble  in  man  or  woman. 
They  are  not  indications  of  a  low  order  of  personality,  but  are  of 
the  greatest  importance  for  the  welfare  and  happiness  of  the  hu- 
man race,  designed  by  nature  for  the  preservation  of  the  species. 
Man  or  woman  could  not  exist  without  them,  but,  if  they  are  to 
be  a  source  of  happiness,  beauty,  pleasure,  and  joy,  as  they  should, 
they  should  be  held  within  proper  limits  by  intelligent  guidance. 

A  young  merchant  sought  to  know  why  his  wife  did  not  enjoy 
the  sexual  relation.  Upon  further  inquiry  it  was  found  that  or- 
gasm with  him  was  premature,  the  act  not  consuming  more  than  a 
half  minute  for  its  completion.  Though  married  four  years,  and 
the  mother  of  one  child,  she  had  never  experienced  pleasurable 
sexual  intercourse.  She  had,  as  the  result  of  this  abnormal  rela- 
tion, suffered  from  various  functional  disturbances,  for  which  she 
had  been  treated  by  various  methods  to  no  avail,  and  finally  be- 
came morose  and  unhappy,  and  dissatisfied  with  everything  in  life. 
Her  husband  submitted  to  treatment  for  a  condition  which  was  the 
result  of  masturbation,  and  life  to  both  himself  and  his  wife  was 
afterward  fraught  with  a  happiness,  zest,  and  buoyancy  of  spirits 
which  they  had  never  known  before. 

A  further  enumeration  of  types  of  cases  illustrative  of  the  hu- 
man misery  resulting  as  a  consequence  of  the  prevalent  ignorance 
in  regard  to  the  sexual  instinct  is  unnecessary  to  give  emphasis  to 
the  necessity  for  the  more  universal  dissemination  of  ideas  concern- 
ing its  proper  guidance.  It  is  necessary  for  health,  as  well  as 
morals,  that  the  sexual  function  be  intelligently  guided.  It  is 
equally,  if  not  more,  essential  to  the  welfare  of  the  human  race 
that  the  individual  submit  to  a  rational  mental  and  sexual  hygiene, 


GUIDANCE   OP   THE   SEXUAL   INSTINCT.  263 

as  that  he  should  be  taught  sound  rules  concerning  dietetics  ex- 
ercise, and  other  methods  of  cultivating  the  moral  and  intellectual 
qualifications  which  contribute  to  the  betterment  of  the  entire  hu- 
man organization. 

It  is  immoral  for  moralists  to  attempt  to  suppress  the  normal 
activity  of  the  functions  of  the  human  organization,  even  though 
it  is  done  with  the  best  intentions  and  with  the  belief  that  it  quali- 
fies the  individual  for  the  attainment  of  happiness  in  another  life. 

The  world's  strongest,  greatest,  most  useful  men  and  women  are 
those  who  are  born  with  strong  natural  desires,  but  they  are  not 
libertines.  As  a  rule,  they  are  virtuous,  because  they  have  learned 
how  to  direct  their  energies  into  wholesome,  useful  lines  of  thought 
and  action,  such  as  would  ennoble  both  their  psychic  and  physical 
constitutions,  contributing  to  the  development  of  mind  and  body, 
bringing  about  a  harmonious  co-operation  of  all  the  natural  forces 
and  functions,  promoting  the  highest  development  of  the  individual 
and  the  most  helpful  influence  to  the  human  race.  On  the  other 
hand,  many  ascetics  or  puritans  deserve  no  credit  for  being  virtu- 
ous, for  they  really  are  not,  as  they  are  from  birth  born  weak, 
devoid  of  the  normal  bodily  appetites,  and  consequently  they  have 
never  had  a  single  sexual  desire  to  resist. 

Many  women  are  made  cold  and  unresponsive  by  the  inhibitory 
influence  of  false  ideas  concerning  sexual  desire,  and  their  person- 
alities have  become  dwarfed,  and  the  homes  of  such  women,  when 
married,  are  in  consequence  gloomy  sepulchers,  where  the  lives  of 
their  husbands  are  spent  in  melancholy  and  despondency. 

By  the  dissemination  of  false  ideas  concerning  the  sexual  instinct 
many  young  boys  and  girls  are  allowed  to  become  masturbators, 
with  the  grave  consequence  that  impotency  in  man  frequently  re- 
sults, and  in  woman  the  most  incorrigible  psychoneurotic  manifesta- 
tions accompany  them  through  life.  With  female  masturbators 
the  result  is  that  the  desire  for  the  embrace,  the  fondling,  petting, 
caressing — all  of  the  strongest  expressions  of  love — are  absent,  and 
she  is  incapacitated  to  respond  to  the  normal  psychic  and  physio- 
logical reactions  which  should  attend  the  sexual  relation.  They 
are  thus  incapacitated  to  excite  the  normal  desire  in  man,  and  in 
her  presence  he  becomes  impotent. 


264  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

Thus  Schrenk-Notzing  says:  "The  self-satisfaction  places  the 
habitual  masturbator  in  a  strange — so  to  say,  unphysiological— 
position  to  the  opposite  sex.  In  making  the  sexual  intercourse 
unnecessary,  it  weakens  the  sexual  desire  and  undermines  the 
strongest  of  our  natural  emotions — the  longing  for  love,  which  is 
the  sexual  foundation,  the  impulse  of  high,  ideal  actions — and 
adulterates  the  fire  of  the  sexual  senses,  which  is  the  stimulus  of 
development  of  strength  in  the  individual  and  of  social  life  in  the 
world  of  the  beautiful  and  the  moral.  The  act  of  onanism  is  more 
injurious  to  the  central  nervous  system  than  the  normal  inter- 
course, because  phantasy  must  fill  the  place  of  reality,  and  thus 
a  great  amount  of  nerve  substance,  possessing  a  higher  functional 
value,  must  be  consumed." 

The  effect  of  temporary  masturbation  must  not  be  confounded 
with  the  results  attending  habitual  masturbation.  Much  harm  is 
done  by  advertising  medical  quacks,  who  speak  of  masturbation 
without  making  this  discrimination,  and  many  a  poor  victim  is 
unnecessarily  frightened  and  much  irreparable  harm  is  done  to 
such  overanxious  individuals  who  read  the  books  of  these  grafters, 
which  are  intended  more  to  frighten  them  into  submission  to 
treatment  than  to  truthfully  set  forth  facts.  Practically  all  unin- 
structed  boys  who  have  passed  beyond  the  teens  have  at  some 
period  of  their  lives  been  temporary  masturbators.  The  effect 
upon  the  individual  case  depends  entirely  upon  the  stability  of  his 
nervous  system,  and  the  time,  frequency,  and  extent  over  which 
the  habit  was  practiced.  One  can  never,  however,  truthfully  say 
that  onanism  can  be  practiced  without  more  or  less  injurious  re- 
sults, and  in  the  greater  proportion  of  such  cases  with  the  cessation 
of  the  habit  the  physical  effects  soon  pass  away.  The  psychic 
effects  often  last  much  longer,  the  treatment  of  which  requires  the 
most  intelligent  and  judicious  employment  of  psychotherapeutic 
measures.  As  a  rule,  they  respond  to  treatment  very  readily,  with 
highly  satisfactory  results  to  the  victims. 

The  entire  list  of  examples  cited,  and  those  described  as  well, 
depending  upon  no  organic  disease  as  the  result  of  venereal  infec- 
tion, or  other  physical  abnormality,  are  cases  where  psychotherapy 
finds  a  most  important  field  of  application.  No  work  undertaken 


GUIDANCE   OF   THE   SEXUAL   INSTINCT.  265 

by  the  physician  requires  more  time,  patience,  tact,  experience, 
skill,  and  perseverance  than  the  effort  to  guide  many  of  the  ex- 
amples cited  back  to  a  normal,  wholesome,  natural,  sexual  life; 
but,  where  no  unmanageable  domestic  situation  or  incorrigible 
temperament  is  presented  as  a  part  of  the  complication  to  be  han- 
dled, one  can  in  due  course  of  time  restore  such  patients  to  their 
normal  mental  and  physical  condition,  and  with  results  that  en- 
able them  to  readapt  themselves  to  their  environment — to  live  use- 
ful, wholesome,  happy  lives. 

To  treat  such  cases,  one  must  be  well  grounded  in  the  psychology 
of  the  sexual  instinct — he  must  treat  the  psychology  of  the  indi- 
vidual patient.  Such  knowledge  involves  the  consideration  of  the 
physical,  emotional,  intellectual,  ethical,  esthetic,  and  moral  quali- 
ties of  human  beings  as  we  find  them  in  the  broad,  e very-day 
world.  It  is  related  to  every  phase  of  life — educational,  religious, 
social,  and  moral — and  plays  an  all-important  part  in  the  produc- 
tion of  health  and  happiness.  The  highest  function  of  the  phy- 
sician is  to  be  prepared  to  give  sane,  wholesome,  sensible  advice 
where  needed  in  such  cases,  and  to  save  such  as  are  seeking  help 
from  the  vampires  who  live  and  thrive  upon  the  distorted  imag- 
inations, credulity,  and  suggestibility  of  those  who  are  honestly 
and  earnestly  seeking  relief. 

In  no  class  of  conditions  can  the  old  adage,  "an  ounce  of  pre- 
vention is  worth  a  pound  of  cure,"  be  so  aptly  applied  as  to  illus- 
trate the  importance  of  efforts  sanely  and  intelligently  directed 
in  the  guidance  of  the  sexual  instinct  as  a  means  of  preventing 
untold  mental  and  physical  suffering  and  in  promoting  the  wel- 
fare, health,  and  happiness  of  the  human  race.  What  is  needed 
by  children,  boys  and  girls,  young  men  and  young  women,  and 
many  who  have  reached  the  age  of  fifty  as  well,  is  education,  knowl- 
edge, and  guidance  in  order  that  the  best  interest  of  the  human 
race  may  be  secured  and  maintained. 

But  before  outlining  practical  ideas  that  should  be  disseminated 
as  a  means  of  prevention  of  the  woeful  blunders  which  those  who 
are  ignorant  of  the  laws  of  sexual  life,  or  from  lack  of  knowledge 
in  self-preservation  from  inexperience,  are  likely  to  make,  as  has 
been  illustrated  by  the  examples  cited,  it  is  well  that  we  refer 


SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

briefly  to  the  more  normal  manifestations  of  the  sexual  instinct, 
and  not  leave  the  reader  with  a  feeling  of  repugnance  to  this  most 
sacred,  most  beautiful,  and  beneficent  attribute  of  human  nature, 
which  popular  theological  morality  has  regarded  as  lust. 

If  sexual  desire,  the  strongest  bodily  appetite — the  highest  func- 
tion of  health,  love,  and  happiness — a  necessary  condition  for  life 
itself,  is  to  be  regarded  as  an  evidence  of  sinfulness,  and  as  the 
sign  of  the  low  and  baser  propensities  in  man,  deserving  only  to 
be  suppressed,  stifled,  and  killed  out  in  order  that  the  divine  and 
spiritual  element,  or  what  is  regarded  as  the  higher  qualities  be- 
longing to  human  nature,  may  become  manifested  in  our  life  and 
conduct,  then  we  have  conclusive  evidence  that  the  Creator  made 
an  unpardonable  mistake,  and  should  have  consulted  some  of  the 
antiquated  theologians,  who  are  responsible  for  much  of  the  er- 
roneous ideas  concerning  the  "baseness,"  "lowness, "  and  "sin- 
fulness"  of  this  beautiful,  psychic,  and  physical  passion,  which  is 
the  most  conspicuous  and  most  prominent  characteristic  in  the 
lives  of  all  of  the  world's  greatest  men  and  women,  and,  above  all 
others,  deserves  to  be  exalted,  and  in  its  manifestations  guided  into 
lines  that  uplift  and  ennoble  mankind,  and  this  guidance  is  true 
morality. 

The  sexual  instinct,  if  properly  guided,  is  capable  of  elevating 
and  ennobling  human  character,  promoting  the  development  of  the 
higher  psychic  qualities — generosity,  magnanimity,  reverence,  al- 
truism, philanthropy,  and  a  tenacious  stand  for  the  right.  But 
if  the  individual  is  left  to  obey  the  instincts  inherent  within  his 
protoplasmic  elements  without  judicious  guidance,  it  may  lead 
him  to  the  lowest  depths  of  depravity  and  jeopardize  the  happi- 
ness and  success  of  the  lives  of  others  with  whom  his  life  is 
bound. 

It  is  the  sexual  instinct  which  is  the  source  of  all  that  is  pure 
and  noble  within  the  human  race,  and  anything  which  hinders  or 
arrests  its  normal  development  robs  human  character  of  all  those 
virile  qualities  which  are  so  highly  esteemed.  It  is  identical  in 
every  way  with  creative  energy  as  manifested  in  all  departments 
of  human  life  and  action. 

The  two  strongest  natural  instincts  are,  and  have  ever  been, 


GUIDANCE   OF   THE   SEXUAL   INSTINCT.  267 

side  by  side  in  all  living  animals,  and  it  is  questionable  if  they 
are  not  synonymous  and  identical.  Self-preservation  and  the  in- 
stinct of  propagation  are  qualities  of  healthy,  normal,  vigorous 
living  beings,  wherever  found.  The  instinct  to  propagate  and  the 
ability  to  fight  for  the  preservation  of  its  progeny  reverses  its 
relative  proportion  as  animal  life  rises  in  the  scale  of  evolutionary 
development ;  so,  in  human  beings  they  blend  in  what  is  commonly 
designated  as  virile  qualities,  and  they  are  manifested  in  both 
psychic  and  physical  attributes. 

From  this  natural  virility  in  man  is  the  species  preserved  and 
the  home  created. 

From  it  arises  our  delight  in  music,  poetry,  literature,  sculpture, 
paintings,  and  all  the  attributes  of  art. 

From  it  comes  our  enjoyment  of  rivalry  in  athletic  sports,  motor- 
ing, horse  racing,  ball  games,  rowing,  shooting,  dancing,  singing, 
and  oratory.  This  natural  virility  in  man  gives  rise  to  his  desire 
to  associate  with  the  opposite  sex,  and  is  the  incentive  to  all  social 
life. 

It  is  the  impulse  that  gives  rise  to  educational  institutions  and 
forms  of  government. 

It  finds  expression  in  the  mechanical  arts,  invention,  and  navi- 
gation. 

It  manifests  itself  by  the  discovery  of  new  countries,  the  clear- 
ing of  forests,  the  building  of  cities,  and  the  construction  of  rail- 
roads. 

It  is  the  impulse  that  gives  rise  to  all  the  achievements  of 
science,  and  incites  the  birth  of  all  philosophies  and  religions. 

It  is  the  instinctive  impulse  that  has  prompted  human  activity 
in  all  ages,  developed  business  and  financial  institutions,  given 
rise  to  wars,  cruelty,  and  bloodshed,  or  to  philanthropic,  benevo- 
lent, and  charitable  institutions. 

In  factories,  on  farms,  in  mines,  school  houses,  stores,  business 
places  of  all  sorts,  in  the  work  of  all  professions — wherever  human 
activity  is  manifested — there  do  we  find  the  mode  of  expression  of 
the  natural  virility,  or  sexual  instinct,  in  its  multifold  manifesta- 
tions, according  to  the  psychic  and  physical  potentialities  of  the 
individuals  concerned. 


268  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

A  vigorous  sexual  nature  is  the  logical  accompaniment  of  a 
great  intellect  and  a  strong,  healthy  body. 

Without  it  there  would  never  have  been  a  Plato,  an  Aristotle,  a 
Marcus  Aurelius,  a  Darwin,  a  Huxley,  a  Tyndale,  a  Carlyle,  an 
Emerson,  a  Gothe,  a  Shakespeare,  a  Milton,  a  Tennyson,  an  Edison, 
a  Morse,  a  Stephenson,  a  Caesar,  a  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  a  Payne,  a 
Voltaire,  a  Hugo,  a  Webster,  a  Calhoun,  a  Clay,  a  Washington,  a 
Grant,  a  Lee,  a  Buddha,  a  Confucius,  a  Jesus  Christ,  or  any  other 
one  of  the  names  of  those  who  have  possessed  the  high  order  of 
psychic  and  physical  qualities  of  manhood  to  dare  to  get  out  of 
the  beaten  path  of  the  common  herd  and  give  to  humanity  the 
highest  expression  and  meaning  of  a  life.  These  persons  and 
thousands  of  like  character,  who  have  achieved  special  success  in 
their  respective  departments  of  endeavor  and  become  the  world's 
true  benefactors,  have  been  men  who  have  been  endowed  with  the 
strongest  natural  passions  and  feelings,  and  their  special  achieve- 
ments indicate  the  channels  into  which  this  inherent  power  of 
psychic  and  physical  manhood  had  by  them  been  directed.  With- 
out it,  ambition  would  sleep,  virtue  would  flee,  pride  would  van- 
quish, and  we  would  be  as  those  who  are  emasculated — impotent, 
cowardly,  and  weak.  Without  it  the  individual  is  unfit  for  life's 
battles,  lacking  in  the  distinctive  qualities  of  sexual  beauty,  flabby 
in  muscle,  weak  in  mind,  and  minus  the  highest  qualities  of  moral 
sense. 

Heredity  plays  an  all-important  part  in  the  mode  of  manifesta- 
tion of  the  sexual  instincts;  so  much  so,  that  a  single  fertilized 
cell  contains  all  the  psychic  and  physical  qualities,  dispositions, 
traits  of  personality,  and  mental  and  physical  attributes  of  an- 
cestors for  ages  past.  All  the  potentialities  are  transmitted  in 
this  microscopic  fertilized  cell. 

But  what  is  really  inherited  at  the  time  of  the  birth  of  the  in- 
dividual is  that  innate,  inherent  quality  of  psychophysical  force — 
that  instinctive  primordial  "urge,"  strong  or  weak  as  it  may  be — 
which  is  expressed  in  the  various  manifestations  of  the  conduct  of 
the  individual  and  indicated  by  what  is  commonly  referred  to  as 
desire.  We  see  it  manifested  in  the  new-born  chick  as  it  kicks,  and 
scrambles,  and  bursts  its  way  out  of  the  shell  in  which  it  was 


GUIDANCE   OF   THE   SEXUAL   INSTINCT.  269 

developed,  and  seeks  a  broader,  more  favorable  environment,  where 
it  can  grow  and  develop  according  to  the  laws  of  its  being. 
"We  see  it  also  manifested  in  the  healthy  human  infant  as  it  raven- 
ously seizes  its  mother's  nipple  when  placed  in  contact  with  it,  and 
so  markedly  is  this  desire  manifested  that  many  children  are  what 
is  sometimes  described  as  "born  hungry."  This  appetite,  desire, 
or  craving  is  generally  admitted  to  be  a  strong  motive  to  conduct, 
and  this  is  manifested  from  the  time  of  birth  all  the  way  through 
the  entire  life  of  the  individual. 

More  and  more  is  it  dawning  upon  us  that  the  mode  of  manifesta- 
tion of  this  inherent  quality  of  psychophysical  force — or  creative 
energy,  natural  virility,  or  life  power — depends  upon  the  influences 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  individual  after  we  are  born.  It  is  at 
least  very  largely  determined  by  education,  knowledge,  and  guid- 
ance, which  is  received  by  the  individual  in  his  growth  from  in- 
fancy to  manhood,  as  is  furnished  by  environment. 

This  guidance,  as  the  result  of  the  influence  of  environment,  may 
be  for  the  good  or  harm  of  the  individual.  It  may  be  acquired 
consciously  or  unconsciously.  Who  can  determine  at  what  age  the 
impressions  made  upon  the  receptive  tablets  of  the  child's  brain 
plasm  are  retained,  by  which  ideas,  propensities,  and  inclinations 
are  conserved,  to  manifest  themselves  in  the  life  and  conduct  of 
the  individual  later  in  life? 

Contemporary  psychologists  are  agreed  that  ideas  are  conserved 
by  the  neuron  elements,  forming  psychophysiological  complexes,  or 
physiological  centers,  the  functionating  of  which  determines  the  in- 
dividual's habits  of  thought  and  conduct  in  after-life.  These 
groups  of  ideas  are  conserved  by  the  neuron  elements  in  such  a 
way  as  to  form  physiological  centers,  that  carry  with  them  ideas 
and  bodily  feelings  as  well,  and  these  do  not  always  functionate  in 
such  way  as  to  conduce  to  the  best  interest  of  the  individual.  The 
result  is  the  development  of  many  manifestations  of  abnormal 
mental  and  bodily  symptoms,  commonly  referred  to  as  the  func- 
tional psychoneuroses.  The  reason  for  this  inharmony  between 
man's  acquired  habits  of  thinking  and  bodily  functions,  and  those 
natural  physiological  processes  with  which  we  are  born,  is  the  re- 
sult of  false  education.  All  education  should  be  in  harmony  with 


270  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

the  natural  functions  of  the  human  body,  and  not  antagonistic  to 
them — as  such  antagonism  will  pervert  them — if  health,  happiness, 
and  contentment  is  to  be  maintained.  This  is  natural  morality,  and 
any  educational  or  religious  influence  contrary  to  the  laws  of  nature 
— such  as  cause  the  individual  to  condemn  the  body,  and  regard  his 
normal  sexual  feelings  as  sinful,  as  "lust  of  the  flesh" — is  re- 
sponsible for  many  unhappy  psychoneurotic  manifestations,  result- 
ing in  divorce,  suicide,  insanity,  and  often  in  death.  Such  religious 
teaching  is  positively  immoral  and  deserves  to  be  condemned. 

"We  should  not  regard  our  normal  sexual  feelings  as  something 
sinful,  low,  vile,  and  lustful,  as  theological  morality  has  taught. 
They  are,  on  the  contrary,  indications  of  normal  virility  and  be- 
long to  all  normal,  healthful,  human  beings,  and  are  an  indication 
of  creative  power  that  can  be  directed  into  lines  of  healthful,  use- 
ful endeavor,  as  various  as  are  the  pursuits,  pleasures,  and  avoca- 
tions of  mankind,  and  should  at  all  times  be  under  the  dictation 
and  guidance  of  reason  and  judgment. 

We  are  constructed  on  a  double  principle.  Man  has  a  dual 
nature,  and  contains  within  himself  two  forms  of  existence,  inti- 
mately and  mutually  interwoven,  which  are  respectively  constantly 
influencing  each  other,  and  they  should  never  be  at  war  or  out  of 
harmony  with  each  other. 

As  animals,  we  have  within  us  the  instincts,  passions,  feelings, 
and  sensations  common  to  all  other  animal  life.  As  intelligent 
human  beings,  we  possess  a  moral  will,  by  which  we  are  able  to 
modify,  guide,  and  direct  the  bodily  motions.  Mental  action  and 
bodily  functions  also  go  hand  in  hand,  constituting  the  psychic 
and  physical  manifestations  of  man  as  a  psychophysical  organism. 
These  mutually  influence  each  other,  as  is  indicated  in  the  old 
maxim,  "mens  sana  in  corpore  sano. "  This  is  why  many  in- 
fluences commonly  designated  as  sympathies,  or  irradiations  of  the 
nervous  system,  frequently  manifest  themselves  as  psychoneurotic 
functional  disorders.  The  psychic  contents  of  the  personality,  as 
the  result  of  education  and  environment,  are  collected  in  the  central 
nervous  system,  conserved  as  dormant  physiological  complexes,  and 
make  themselves  manifest  as  dissociated  unconscious  reflexes,  or  as 
conscious  sensations.  Hence  arise  moods — such  as  mental  irrita- 


GUIDANCE   OP   THE   SEXUAL   INSTINCT.  271 

bility,  nervousness,  perversions  of  imagination,  jealousy,  and  other 
obstacles  of  a  normal  sexual  life — and  these  are  the  greatest 
obstacles  to  the  manifestation  of  a  normal,  useful,  happy,  success- 
ful existence  as  well. 

The  highest  privilege  of  life  is  that  the  individual  develop  and 
give  to  the  world  the  very  best  personality  that  can  be  made  of 
himself — physically,  mentally,  and  morally.  This  is  the  very  goal 
of  all  human  endeavor  and  achievement,  and,  no  matter  what  suc- 
cess the  individual  may  attain,  life  is  a  failure  unless  one  has  suc- 
ceeded in  the  acquirement  of  a  personality  consisting  of  such 
physical  and  mental  attributes  as  are  an  inspiration  and  encourage- 
ment to  other  personalities  with  whom  he  or  she  is  associated. 

The  sexual  instinct  is  a  phenomenon  that  has  both  its  physio- 
logical and  psychological  manifestations.  In  no  phase  of  human 
conduct  do  we  see  the  influence  of  personality  upon  personality  so 
markedly  exhibited  as  in  the  sexual  relations  between  man  and 
woman.  The  love  of  the  normal  man  is  awakened  and  nourished 
by  essential  and  natural  qualities  in  woman — beauty,  gayety, 
vivacity,  healthy  normal  love,  and  devotion — and  he  values 
domesticity  as  well  as  knowledge;  helpful,  sympathetic  co-opera- 
tion in  his  life's  duties,  as  well  as  physical  attractiveness;  and  in 
all  of  the  relations  of  life  her  influence  upon  him  is  as  a  psycho- 
physiological  depressant  if  she  is  unhappy,  exacting,  quarrelsome, 
and  constantly  exhibiting  psychoneurotie  manifestations.  The  in- 
fluence of  the  personality  of  the  man  upon  wife,  or  the  wife  upon 
husband,  determines  one's  conscious  sensations — pleasant  or  dis- 
agreeable, as  the  case  may  be — and  no  factor  in  human  life  so 
contributes  to  health,  happiness,  and  success,  and  all  that  goes  to 
make  life  worth  while  in  the  world,  as  the  influence  exerted  by 
the  personality  of  the  individual  upon  his  or  her  companion  in  the 
marriage  relation. 

Sensations  that  are  pleasant  or  unpleasant,  agreeable  or  disagree- 
able, stimulating  or  depressing,  play  a  most  important  role  in  the 
mental  as  well  as  the  bodily  manifestations  of  man.  Those  sensa- 
tions that  arise  from  an  association  that  produces  effects  upon 
mind  and  body  that  are  pleasant,  agreeable,  and  stimulating  to  the 
organism  encourage  all  bodily  functions,  stimulate  the  activities 


272  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

of  the  mind,  and  increase  the  capacity  of  the  individual  for  mental 
and  physical  work,  thus  evoking  health,  love,  life,  and  happiness. 

Sensations  that  are  unpleasant,  disagreeable,  and  depressing 
cause  mental  depression,  despondency,  and  nervous  irritability. 
Such  an  influence  may  result  in  actual  pain,  and  cause  a  marked 
inhibition  of  mental  and  physical  capacities. 

Self-preservation  is  the  first  law  of  nature,  and  therefore  it  is 
only  in  accordance  with  the  constitution  of  the  human  organiza- 
tion to  perceive  as  pleasant,  agreeable,  and  stimulating  everything 
favoring  itself,  as  expressed  in  bodily  functions  or  in  mental  ac- 
tivity, for  all  helpful  sensations  encourage  health,  success  in  busi- 
ness pursuits,  and  happiness  as  a  natural  consequence. 

Agreeable  sensations  do  much  more  to  contribute  to  the  happi- 
ness of  man  than  is  generally  supposed.  They  carry  with  them 
ideas,  feelings,  and  beliefs  that  constitute  luck,  joy,  happiness, 
love,  and  sympathy.  They  soothe  and  satisfy  the  cravings  of  the 
normal  human  organization,  and  predispose  to  active  and  useful 
endeavor  in  the  great  every-day  world. 

Disagreeable  sensations,  on  the  other  hand,  are  positive  psycho- 
physiological  depressants.  They  depress  and  inhibit  the  functions 
of  the  entire  organization,  cause  nervous  and  mental  irritability, 
make  the  individual  miserable  and  unhappy,  and  rob  life  of  its 
zest  and  enthusiasm. 

The  necessary  requisites  for  a  happy  and  permanent  sexual  re- 
lation concern  the  entire  personality,  psychic  and  physical,  in 
which  educational  qualifications,  mental  attributes,  acquisitions, 
and  temperament,  likes  and  dislikes,  are  of  equal  importance  to 
bodily  qualities.  The  natural  attraction  of  sex  to  sex,  present  in 
the  sexual  act,  is  more  influenced  by  psychic  qualities — and  all 
that  is  implied  in  the  word  "congeniality" — than  by  the  physio- 
logical expression  of  the  desire  to  gratify  sexual  passion  by  orgasm. 

Many  marriage  relations  are  entered  into  only  from  sensual  in- 
toxication, as  the  result  of  constant  association  of  the  opposite  sexes, 
without  considering  whether  psychic  qualities  exist  which  make  a 
marriage  relation  for  life  possible.  Such  marriages  are  often  the 
burial  ground  for  happiness  and  joy,  as  well  as  for  a  useful  life 
in  the  business  world. 


GUIDANCE   OF   THE   SEXUAL    INSTINCT.  273 

The  different  developments  of  character  and  faults  in  the  parties 
to  a  marriage  relation,  usually  as  the  result  of  education  and  en- 
vironment in  early  life,  frequently  cause  the  disharmony  which 
proves  destructive  to  the  home  life. 

Thus  Nystrom  has  well  said:  "One  thing  is  certain — viz.,  that 
not  the  most  obviously  wise  legislation  concerning  marriage,  nor 
the  most  rigid  superintendence,  is  able  to  create  happiness  of  mar- 
ried people,  safety  of  children,  and  happy  homes.  Love  alone  can 
do  this,  and  where  it  is  absent  a  union  is  false  and  marriage  is 
unworthy  oppression,  which  ruins  character,  and  all  prattle  of 
infidelity  is  without  inner  deeper  import." 

True  love,  mutual  sympathy,  and  respect  are  the  fundamental 
conditions  for  the  happy  marital  union  of  two  well-developed  in- 
dividuals. This  embraces  comradeship,  understanding,  mutual  in- 
terest, sympathy,  loyalty,  and  all  that  contributes  to  the  happiness, 
success,  and  development  of  the  entire  personality. 

The  sexual  relation  is  only  an  incident  in  the  life  of  the  parties  to 
a  union  where  the  fundamental  conditions  above  enumerated  exist, 
and  it  is  then  only  one  of  the  numerous  ties  which  unite  and  hold 
man  and  wife  together. 

In  many  cases,  on  the  other  hand,  the  sexual  act  is  the  only 
link  that  binds  in  the  marital  relation,  and  such  a  relationship  is 
not  the  same  as  love.  It  may  be  performed  as  the  result  of  habit, 
without  love  or  sympathy,  in  response  to  the  physiological  de- 
mands of  the  animal  nature,  carrying  with  it  no  gratification  for 
one  party  and  is  a  humiliation  for  the  other.  Such  a  relation  is 
devoid  of  devotion,  and  thus  the  main  element  of  sexual  life  is 
lacking,  and  has  in  it  not  one  element  worthy  of  the  participation 
of  a  self-respecting  being.  Sickness,  suicide,  divorce,  or  the  most 
unhappy  state  of  existence  is  the  consequence.  Many  such  mar- 
riage relations  are  in  existence.  The  man  is  willing  to  surrender 
his  happiness,  success,  convictions,  ideals — his  very  life — for  the 
sake  of  the  conservation  of  a  home,  where  the  children  who  are 
born  as  the  result  of  his  unhappy  union  may  be  reared  and  edu- 
cated. Such  men  are  martyrs,  for  the  unhappiness  they  are  forced 
to  conceal  is  worse  than  the  most  malignant  cancer  constantly  prey- 
ing upon  life.  Of  the  ten  or  twelve  thousand  suicides  per  annum 


274  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

in  the  United  States,  many  that  are  reported  as  caused  by  "busi- 
ness complications"  are  the  result  of  an  unhappy  domestic  union. 
Many  marriages  too  early  in  life  are  entered  into  under  the  in- 
fluence of  emotion,  or  the  stimulus  of  animal  passion,  which  is 
mistaken  for  love.  Psychic  qualifications  do  not  enter  into  such 
relations  as  an  incentive  to  the  selection  of  a  mate.  Later  on  in 
life  man's  psychic  nature  is  stronger  in  its  influence  upon  him 
than  mere  animal  passion,  and  sexual  intercourse  without  the 
stimulus  of  the  higher  elements  of  congeniality  produces  a  sur- 
feit, a  disgust,  and  positive  repulsion  in  perfect  accord  with  the 
laws  of  his  higher  nature. 

Man  is  a  being  of  intelligence,  with  moral  and  social  ideals,  aspi- 
ration, reason,  ambition,  knowledge,  perception,  and  judgment, 
and,  where  a  union  is  maintained  without  congeniality  in  regard 
to  these  higher  evolutionary  factors  of  personality,  but  only  as  a 
means  of  gratifying  his  animal  passions,  intercourse  is  robbed  of 
the  essential  psychic  elements  which  produce  a  favorable  reaction 
upon  mind  and  body,  without  which  it  is  prostitution  pure  and 
simple. 

Beastiality,  or  the  act  of  having  intercourse  with  a  brute,  is 
not  an  uncommon  occurrence  among  the  uneducated  negroes  of  the 
southern  states.  A  horse  has  been  known  to  be  the  instrument  for 
this  disgusting  act  by  a  man  in  whom  the  higher  psychic  qualities 
had  not  been  developed.  The  sexual  act  is  the  same  in  effect  when 
a  man  has  intercourse  with  a  prostitute,  who  grants  him  the  privi- 
lege of  using  her  body  to  produce  orgasm  for  a  price,  as  in  the 
instance  where  the  horse  was  employed.  In  both  instances  the 
essential  psychic  elements  were  lacking,  and  only  an  individual 
who  has  smothered  every  worthy  quality  within  him,  or  one  in 
whom  they  had  never  been  evolved,  could  engage  in  such  a  dis- 
gusting relation. 

Just  in  proportion  as  man  rises  in  the  scale  of  evolution,  or 
has  become  more  civilized,  does  his  sexual  instincts  become  more 
refined  and  ennobled,  and  the  qualities  of  mind  and  character 
enter  his  ideal  of  what  his  conjugal  mate  should  be. 

Like  attracts  like  in  the  mating  instinct  as  in  other  departments 
of  nature.  The  feminine  nature  is  drawn  by  the  man  who  most 


GUIDANCE   OP   THE   SEXUAL   INSTINCT.  275 

nearly  conforms  to  her  ideal  of  what  a  man  should  be.  Beckey,  a 
popular  young  negress,  was  infatuated  by  Jordan,  the  strongest 
negro  on  the  farm  because  he  was  more  than  the  equal  of  the  other 
negro  men  when  a  test  of  strength  wras  made  at  loading  cotton,  car- 
rying logs,  splitting  rails,  and  in  all  places  where  physical  endur- 
ance was  the  test  of  manhood.  He  was  also  a  born  fighter,  and  she 
gloried  in  his  virile  qualities  manifested  in  the  most  primitive  way. 

Mary,  another  negress,  was  a  great  church  devotee,  and  no  negro 
man  in  the  neighborhood  stood  in  her  estimation  as  compared  with 
Lewis,  the  young  deacon.  She  was  proud  to  become  his  wife  be- 
cause he  measured  up  to  her  highest  ideal  of  what  she  conceived 
a  man  should  be. 

And  all  along  up  in  the  scale  of  civilization,  from  the  lowest 
to  the  highest,  woman  is  attracted  most  by  the  man  who  is  near- 
est the  embodiment  of  the  physical  and  psychic  qualities  which 
most  nearly  conform  to  her  ideal.  The  masculine  nature  is  drawn 
by  the  woman  who  most  strongly  believes  in  him,  and  he  naturally 
desires  to  be  her  protector.  He  is  strengthened  and  encouraged 
by  her  confidence,  comforted  by  her  sympathy  in  the  battles  against 
environment,  and  in  all  of  life's  struggles  made  more  of  a  man  by 
her  self-sacrifices  for  his  success. 

The  types  of  individuality  are  as  varied  as  are  men  and  women 
in  the  world,  and  among  them  all  this  natural  sex  attraction  is  in 
evidence.  A  woman's  ideal  of  what  a  man  should  be  depends  upon 
her  training,  as  determined  by  environment  and  education.  Ac- 
cording to  her  development  is  she  prepared  to  appreciate  the  high- 
est qualities  of  ideal  manhood,  and  she  is  instinctively  drawn  to 
the  man  most  nearly  representing  in  her  estimation  the  character- 
istics of  what  true  manhood  should  be;  and  man  is  drawn  to  the 
woman  who  most  nearly  conforms  to  his  ideal  of  womanly  per- 
fection. This  element  of  sympathy  pertains  more  to  psychic  than 
to  physical  qualities,  and  in  this  alone  does  man  differ  most  con- 
spicuously in  sexual  instincts  from  those  manifested  by  the  brute. 
Nothing  so  helps  in  the  making  of  a  man  as  the  love,  and  confi- 
dence, and  helpful  co-operation  of  a  woman  who  truly  believes  in 
him.  She  is  the  vis  a  tergo — the  power  behind  the  throne— the 
mainspring  to  man's  effort  at  doing  and  being  something  in  the 


276  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

world  in  which  he  lives,  and  a  true  woman  wishes  no  higher  place 
in  life  than  to  inspire  one  man  to  put  forth  his  energies  in  the 
performance  of  useful,  helpful  service  to  mankind.  To  help  him 
in  his  work  by  her  love  and  helpful  co-operation  and  kindly  sym- 
pathy, and  to  know  that  she  is  justly  appreciated  by  her  hero,  is 
the  reward  that  the  normal,  sane,  wholesome  woman  seeks  above 
all  else  in  the  world. 

It  is  but  the  manifestation  of  the  normal  sexual  instinct  in 
man  that  is  manifested  in  any  and  every  line  of  wholesome,  useful, 
conscientious  endeavor,  in  all  that  pertains  to  making  himself  and 
family  a  living,  educating  and  developing  them,  and  contributing 
his  best  efforts  for  the  betterment  of  humanity;  and  it  is  but  the 
manifestation  of  the  normal  sexual  instinct  in  woman  to  help  him, 
believe  in  him,  love  and  encourage  him,  and  so  reign  as  the  queen 
of  his  home  that  in  her  kingdom  he  can  obtain  peace  and  happi- 
ness, joy  and  comfort,  and  the  rest  that  he  needs  from  a  life  of 
care  and  responsibility. 

No  human  being  can  stand  alone  very  long  unless  supported  by 
the  love  and  helpful  co-operation  of  other  human  beings  with 
whom  he  is  related.  As  the  head  of  a  home,  man's  life  is  a  fight 
between  himself  and  the  entire  world,  and  his  comrade,  his  fighting 
mate,  his  inspiration  and  encouragement,  his  best  help,  must  come 
from  the  wife  who  loves  him,  believes  in  him  and  his  work,  and 
stands  ever  ready  to  contribute  all  within  her  power  to  his  happi- 
ness and  success. 

With  over  ten  thousand  suicides  and  fifty  thousand  divorces 
yearly  in  the  United  States ;  with  our  overcrowded  insane  asylums, 
hospitals,  and  penitentiaries;  with  weakness,  impotency,  incompe- 
tency  and  disease  thronging  our  cities,  the  time  has  arrived  when 
physicians,  and  laity  as  well,  should  face  this  question  of  the 
guidance  of  the  sexual  instinct  in  the  young,  so  as  to  equip  them 
to  live  sane,  useful,  normal,  healthful,  happy  lives  as  a  means  of 
preventing  the  disastrous  consequences  which  result  from  ignorance 
concerning  the  power  inherent  in  all  human  beings,  and  we  should 
take  such  measures  as  would  prevent  the  fate  of  all  who  are  al- 
lowed to  drift  unguided  along  in  the  world  into  disease,  unhappi- 
ness,  and  degeneracy  on  account  of  the  failure  of  educators  to  en- 


GUIDANCE   OF   THE   SEXUAL   INSTINCT.  277 

lighten  them  upon  the  simple,  practical  questions  of  every-day  life. 
And  in  efforts  to  educate  and  enlighten  the  young  and  older  people 
as  well  it  should  be  remembered  that  education  may  be  ever  so 
good,  principles  of  life  ever  so  high,  but,  unless  they  are  in  harmony 
with  nature's  laws  and  meet  the  requirements  of  the  normal,  natural 
individual,  they  fall  short  of  meeting  the  requirements  of  the  needs 
of  mankind. 

Conscience,  that  secret  monitor  which  decides  the  righteous- 
ness or  sinfulness  of  our  actions,  is  the  result  of  education,  and 
has  a  tremendous  influence  upon  the  guidance  of  the  sexual  in- 
stinct. Most  children  either  have  no  instruction  in  regard  to  the 
sexual  function  or  they  have  been  wrongly  taught. 

To  send  children  to  church,  and  leave  all  moral  guidance  to 
its  influence,  is  not  sufficient.  It  is  idle  to  promulgate  lofty 
theories  and  sentiments  when  we  are  brought  face  to  face  with 
conditions  that  should  be  handled  practically.  It  may  appear 
beautiful  to  teach  a  boy  to  sing,  "There  is  sunshine  in  my  soul 
today,"  but  we  who  have  seen  the  miserable  mental  depression 
and  physical  suffering  resulting  from  gonorrhea  and  syphilis  con- 
tracted by  unthinking  youths,  or  the  despondency  with  which  they 
suffer  later  on  in  life  as  the  result  of  masturbation,  know  that  it 
is  far  wiser  to  talk  to  them  plainly  about  the  sexual  functions  and 
give  them  that  knowledge  that  all  boys  are  eager  to  receive,  and 
thus  save  them  from  the  pitfalls  that  lurk  in  their  pathway  by  an 
earnest  appeal  to  their  reasoning  faculties. 

Many  people  look  with  disapproval  upon  any  effort  to  solve  the 
problem  of  social  vice.  They  pride  themselves  in  their  ignorance 
and  call  this  purity,  but  violations  of  natural  laws  in  innocence 
and  ignorance  are  attended  with  the  same  penalty  as  other  crimes 
of  misconduct. 

To  teach  children  to  sing,  "We  will  walk  in  the  light,"  and  not 
forewarn  them  of  the  consequences  of  physical  degradation  and 
vice,  is  mockery  and  deceit. 

It  is  in  early  childhood  that  we  can  plant  sense  impressions  or 
suggestions  upon  the  soft  tablets  of  their  brain  plasm,  and  so  form 
habits  of  thought  and  action  that  will  make  them  conquerors  in 
life.  The  consequences  of  vice  as  a  hindrance  to  their  develop- 


278  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

merit  should  be  explained  to  children,  and  constantly  iterated  and 
repeated  by  those  responsible  for  their  training.  They  should 
be  made  to  feel  that  every  part  of  their  body  was  created  for  a 
purpose,  and  that  function  should  be  carefully  explained  to  them. 
They  should  not  be  allowed  to  become  ashamed  of  their  procrea- 
tive  organs,  but  should  be  taught  to  regard  their  care  and  preserva- 
tion as  a  sacred  trust,  and  that  upon  that  care  and  preservation 
their  future  happiness,  health,  and  success  in  life  will  largely  de- 
pend. 

Children  should  be  taught  that  every  living  thing,  from  man 
down  to  the  lowest  insect,  comes  into  the  world  as  the  result  of 
the  union  between  the  sexes  by  coaptation  of  the  sexual  organs,  and 
that,  instead  of  regarding  sexual  cohabitation  as  low  and  degraded, 
it  is  nature's  method  of  procreating  the  species,  and  therefore  the 
most  sacred  of  all  relations.  As  a  means  of  self-preservation,  they 
should  be  taught  the  harmful  effects  of  self-pollution,  or  pollution 
by  others,  and  wisely  trained  to  bring  their  bodies,  minds,  and  char- 
acters into  perfect  manhood  and  womanhood,  so  that  they  can  be 
prepared  to  enter  the  marriage  relation  well  qualified  for  man's 
and  woman's  greatest  usefulness  to  the  world — that  of  populating 
it  with  children  well  endowed  with  all  the  physical  and  psychical 
attributes  to  make  the  highest  type  of  the  species. 

There  is  a  time  in  the  life  of  every  boy  and  girl,  just  as  they 
enter  the  age  of  puberty,  when  they  feel  the  thrill  of  the  sexual 
impulse,  and,  witnessing  the  rapid  development  of  the  organs  of 
generation,  they  seek  from  every  available  source  information  upon 
this  most  vital  subject,  and  in  the  majority  of  instances  are  falsely 
educated  by  those  who  are  thrown  in  their  environment,  without 
the  slightest  warning  of  the  danger  that  comes  from  the  abuse  of 
these  most  beautiful  emotions  and  most  worthy  aspirations. 
Children  should  know  that  such  passions  are  but  an  evidence  of 
energy  that  seeks  to  find  expression  in  their  lives  and  conduct, 
and  that  such  energies  can,  by  the  guidance  of  reason,  be  turned 
into  intellectual  and  physical  development.  They  should  be  so 
trained  that  their  habits  of  thought  and  action  during  the  first 
twenty  years  of  life  will  produce  strong  bodies,  clear  minds,  and 
buoyant,  happy  spirits.  The  best  development  comes  in  the  un- 


GUIDANCE   OF   THE   SEXUAL   INSTINCT.  279 

conscious  exercise  of  a  child's  faculties  in  wholesome  endeavor  and 
useful  employment,  such  as  will  call  both  mind  and  body  into 
action. 

Children  should  be  taught  to  know  that  their  bodily  passions 
are  but  the  indications  of  awakening  and  developing  capabilities 
of  mind  and  body,  and  that  these  they  can  restrain,  control,  direct, 
and  govern.  They  should  be  taught  how  to  divert  their  surplus 
energy  into  channels  of  useful  work  and  achievement — such  as  will 
result  in  mental  development  and  muscular  strength,  and  that  will 
qualify  them  to  make  the  fight  against  environment  for  all  that 
constitutes  success,  happiness,  and  usefulness  in  the  world.  The  re- 
sults of  masturbation  should  be  carefully  explained  to  them,  and 
the  possibility  of  disease  and  pregnancy  resulting  from  an  effort 
to  gratify  their  passions  in  an  illegitimate  way  should  be  pointed 
out. 

Children  have  a  right  to  know  the  truth  about  all  these  questions 
of  life  which  most  concern  their  future  welfare.  We  warn  them 
against  the  danger  of  firearms  and  deep  water,  and  of  the  risk  they 
take  in  exposure  to  ferocious  beasts,  but  the  care  and  protection  of 
their  minds  and  bodies  we  leave  too  often  to  the  guidance  of  utterly 
unreliable  sources. 

The  meaning  of  kissing,  hugging,  fondling,  and  caressing  be- 
tween the  sexes  should  be  taught,  and  the  utility  of  these  love  mani- 
festations in  the  marriage  relation  emphasized,  both  for  their 
future  happiness  as  well  as  a  means  of  self-protection  from  the 
standpoint  of  virtue  and  as  a  safeguard  from  disease. 

The  moral  cowardice  of  men  and  women  in  regard  to  these  mat- 
ters is  worthy  of  deepest  contempt.  Even  some  physicians,  who 
reap  a  reward  of  thousands  of  dollars  yearly  on  account  of  the 
indiscretions  of  ignorance  and  youth,  vigorously  protest  against 
any  movement  to  educate  and  enlighten  those  who  are  surrounded 
by  a  thousand  pitfalls. 

The  pursuit  of  happiness  is  the  incentive  to  the  acts  of  all  human 
beings  as  well  as  the  motive  of  conduct  of  the  lower  forms  of  life, 
and  children  should  have  the  education  that  the  human  animal 
needs  to  meet  the  requirements  of  his  primitive  instincts  and  to 


280  SUGGESTIVE  THERAPEUTICS. 

adapt  his  life  to  conform  to  the  requirements  of  morality  and  of 
civilization  as  well. 

Prevention  of  disease,  poverty,  unhappiness,  insanity,  divorce, 
suicide,  crime,  incompetency,  illiteracy,  and  all  that  tends  to  the 
degeneracy  of  the  human  race  are  the  watchwords  of  the  present 
age.  The  tendency  of  the  age  is  toward  the  growth  of  convictions 
that  are  more  concerned  with  the  conduct  of  life  and  the  develop- 
ment of  the  individual  qualification  for  meeting  the  exigencies  of 
life,  incident  to  making  his  struggle  for  existence,  than  mere  belief 
in  dogma.  There  is  a  growing  conviction  among  all  well-educated 
people  that  the  work  of  physicians,  educators,  politicians,  philan- 
thropists, social  servants,  jurists,  theologians,  and  commercial  men 
should  be  in  closer  touch,  in  greater  harmony,  in  deeper  sympathy 
for  the  accomplishment  of  the  best  results  in  either  field.  The  line 
of  demarkation  between  work  that  is  secular  and  work  that  is 
religious,  work  that  is  human  and  work  that  is  divine,  is  growing 
less  and  less  every  day,  and  scientific  knowledge  practically  applied 
for  the  social,  moral,  mental,  and  physical  welfare  of  humanity  is 
permeating  every  phase  of  human  life.  Body,  mind,  and  character 
are  so  related  that  their  development  can  not  be  separated.  It 
is  practically  impossible  to  obtain  the  highest  development  of  one 
element  of  human  personality  while  the  others  remain  weak  or  de- 
graded. The  test  of  the  value  of  any  line  of  work  is  displayed 
in  its  influence  on  the  development  of  man  as  a  whole.  The  final 
test  must  ever  be  found  in  the  character  and  purpose  of  the  indi- 
vidual effort  to  contribute  to  the  public  weal.  We  have  reached 
that  stage  in  the  development  of  the  virile  human  intellect  where  we 
have  ceased  to  become  afraid.  Progress  is  the  order  of  the  world, 
and  to  have  a  part  in  the  universal  movement  for  the  uplifting  of 
humanity  is  the  work  that  is  most  worth  while. 

As  we  advance  in  knowledge  we  behold  a  new  order  of  things. 
Old  conceptions  are  dropping  out  of  sight,  and  we  have  a  clearer 
viewpoint  of  life,  duty,  and  destiny.  Only  those  who  are  inert  and 
impotent  mentally  and  morally  are  content  to  be  satisfied  with  the 
existing  order  of  things.  Too  long  have  we  submitted,  under  the 
guise  of  religion,  to  the  promulgation  of  those  ideas  not  in  harmony 
with  the  teachings  of  modern  science,  with  the  result  that  life  has 


GUIDANCE   OF   THE   SEXUAL   INSTINCT.  281 

been  suppressed,  intellect  has  been  overthrown,  and  all  the  potenti- 
alities inherent  within  the  protoplasmic  elements  of  the  individual 
stifled  and  smothered. 

Those  who  speak  lightly  of  the  functional  psychoneuroses,  in- 
cluding such  as  the  undifferentiated  depressions,  psychasthenia, 
hypochondriasis,  neurasthenia,  hysteria,  and  obsessions,  and  disre- 
gard the  part  played  by  education  and  environment  in  their  eti- 
ology, are  asleep,  and  they  need  to  be  aroused  from  their  lethargy. 

The  prophylactic  spirit,  so  conspicuously  at  work  in  applying  the 
principles  of  bacteriology  and  immunity  to  the  prevention  of  in- 
fectious diseases,  is  no  less  in  evidence  in  the  field  of  preventive 
insanity,  preventive  degeneracy,  poverty,  crimes,  drunkenness,  and 
other  conditions  resulting  from  perverted  or  misguided  potenti- 
alities. Who  can  say  that  neurasthenic  symptoms,  if  neglected 
for  a  sufficient  length  of  time,  will  not  become  a  contributing 
factor  in  paresis,  dementia  precox,  paranoia,  or  a  maniacal  depres- 
sive insanity? 

The  treatment  of  the  psychoneuroses,  which  are  usually  the  re- 
sult of  the  failure  of  the  individual  to  receive  that  guidance  of  his 
powers  of  mind  and  body  to  qualify  him  or  her  to  exercise  them 
in  wholesome,  useful  lives  of  thought  and  action  by  psychothera- 
peutic  measures — which  embrace  moral  education,  physical  educa- 
tion, prophylactic  education,  as  well  as  the  employment  of  sugges- 
tion both  with  and  without  hypnosis — in  order  to  overcome  the 
harmful  effects  produced  by  false  education  upon  the  functional 
activity  of  the  neuron  elements,  if  timely  administered,  would  pre- 
vent a  greater  proportion  of  the  insanities  than  is  commonly  sup- 
posed. The  people  in  our  insane  asylums  are  the  same  kind  that 
we  see  every  day  on  the  outside,  but  with  exaggerated  differences. 
All  that  is  needed  for  a  great  portion  of  the  human  race  to  develop 
manifestations  of  insanity  is  the  unfortunate  environment  that  has 
surrounded  during  infancy  and  childhood  those  who  are  insane. 
The  heredity  of  many  of  us  is  not  better  than  those  mental  defect- 
ives who  are  allowed  to  become  so  because  of  false  education,  and, 
had  the  same  environing  influences  fallen  to  our  lot,  the  results 
would  have  been  the  same. 

Children  should  be  given  something  truthful  and  practical  to 


282  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

think  about  and  to  act  upon — they  should  be  taught  to  exercise  their 
faculties  by  early  wholesome  work  and  employment.  They  should 
be  made  to  feel  that  they  are  helpers  in  carrying  the  burdens  of 
life  and  thus  develop  self-reliance.  They  should  be  made  to  realize 
that  they  have  within  themselves  an  inherent  quality  of  psycho- 
physical  force,  or  natural  virility,  which  they  can  exercise  so  as  to 
be  of  real  use  in  the  world. 

They  should  be  made  to  realize  that  every  man  is  a  creator — that 
he  is  endowed  not  only  with  procreative  energy,  as  is  indicated  by 
the  normal  sexual  feelings,  but  that  this  is  one  manifestation  of 
that  innate,  inherent  capacity  of  mind  and  body  with  which  his  in- 
fluence in  the  world  of  thought  and  action  will  be  felt  by  his  kind. 

Desire  is  the  positive  part  of  our  being,  and  by  it  the  normal  in- 
stincts are  manifested.  These,  by  false  education,  may  be  re- 
pressed, perverted,  or  stifled,  and  abused,  as  the  case  may  be;  or 
they  can,  as  the  result  of  education,  knowledge,  and  guidance,  be 
encouraged  into  normal  lines  of  activity,  by  which  the  individual  is 
developed  and  the  best  interest  of  the  human  race  conserved. 

The  world  has  not  yet  adequately  realized  the  importance  of  the 
recognition,  use,  and  guidance  of  the  natural  virility  of  the  human 
being.  To  use  it  right,  we  need  a  degree  of  intelligence  to  which 
the  human  race  has  not  yet  attained.  To  equip  us  to  use  it  in  nor- 
mal, healthful  lines  of  thought  and  action  is  the  problem  of  edu- 
cation, the  problem  of  science,  and  its  guidance  concerns  all  that 
contributes  to  the  evolution  of  the  human  race. 

In  the  education  and  intelligent  guidance  of  the  natural  virility 
of  man,  or  of  the  sexual  instinct,  lies  the  method  of  true  reform, 
which  deals  with  causes  and  not  effects.  It  opens  the  way  to  indi- 
vidual emancipation  and  progress,  and  the  regeneration  of  society 
should  follow.  Conventions  and  mass  meetings  avail  nothing  in 
the  decision  of  the  way  to  direct  this  natural  virility  within  us  all. 
That  is  a  problem  for  the  individual,  and  one  which  every  one 
must  sooner  or  later  solve  according  to  his  limited  knowledge  and 
experience,  and  through  its  intelligent  guidance  is  his  happiness, 
health,  sanity,  and  success  in  life  determined.  Preparation  to 
guide  and  direct  our  energies  into  lines  of  wholesome,  useful,  help- 
ful endeavor  is  not  to  be  acquired  or  assumed  by  a  psychological 


GUIDANCE   OP   THE   SEXUAL   INSTINCT.  283 

change  called  conversion.  It  must  come  by  effort,  education,  de- 
velopment, and  growth,  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  psychic  and  physical  potentialities  in  man. 

Intelligent  guidance  of  the  sexual  instinct  must  come  as  the  re- 
sult of  long  and  persistent  training,  and  in  childhood  is  the  time 
to  begin  this  training.  Life  consists  in  the  exercise  of  our  faculties 
and  functions,  and  happiness  results  from  the  performance  of  duty 
and  from  successful  achievement. 

We  are  in  the  world  for  growth  and  development.  We  are  each 
endowed  with  a  mind  and  a  will  to  use  for  ourselves.  We  have 
within  us  high  and  noble  aspirations,  which  have  spurred  us  on 
to  develop  and  train  this  mind,  that  we  may  comprehend  the  phys- 
ical and  mental  laws  by  which  we  are  controlled.  Long  and  tedious 
has  been  the  way,  slow  and  painful  has  been  our  ascent  from  dark- 
ness into  light.  Every  foot  of  our  progress  has  been  obstinately 
contested  by  ignorance,  superstition,  fanaticism,  and  misdirected 
zeal.  The  illumined  genius  of  man  has  never  evolved  a  life-saving 
or  mind-soothing  discovery  that  has  not  been  bitterly  fought  by 
the  great  masses  of  the  people.  It  has  been  ever  thus,  and  will  be 
until  the  end  of  time. 

The  intelligent  guidance  of  the  sexual  instinct  involves  all  that 
contributes  to  the  evolution  of  the  individual.  It  embraces  the 
question  of  food,  home,  clothing,  education,  work,  exercise,  mental 
and  physical  development,  beliefs,  moral  teaching,  and  companion- 
ship. Its  guidance  is  an  attempt  to  direct  the  course  of  that  sub- 
limely grand  evolutionary  principle  which  extends  from  the  low- 
est form  of  animal  life  up  to  the  most  highly  cultured  man  and 
woman. 

According  to  the  physical  development  of  the  individual  are  his 
sexual  instincts  manifested,  and  according  to  his  psychic  develop- 
ment are  they  guided,  whether  by  the  impulse  actuated  by  physio- 
logical desire  from  within  the  protoplasmic  elements  of  his  own 
being  or  by  the  psychophysiological  influences  exerted  from  with- 
out. One  thing  is  certain— the  guidance  of  the  sexual  instinct  in 
the  young,  before  the  psychic  development  of  the  individual  has 
rendered  him  competent  to  become  master  of  his  own  potentialities, 
is  most  beneficent  in  its  results,  and  it  may  exercise  a  potent  in- 


284  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

fluence  for  the  good  or  harm  of  the  individual  throughout  his  en- 
tire existence. 

No  sectarian  interpretation  of  the  problems  of  life  contains  the 
clue  to  its  correct  guidance,  but  the  knowledge  obtained  from  all 
books  of  science,  philosophy,  sociology,  history,  psychology,  and  all 
religions — the  accumulated  knowledge  of  the  ages — sheds  light 
upon  this  important  question.  The  times  demand  a  leadership 
that  will  appeal  to  reason  and  not  to  ignorance,  to  the  intellect  and 
not  to  prejudice — a  philosophy  that  will  develop  the  individual 
into  the  complete  statue  of  man  and  womanhood  and  not  suppress 
the  normal  physiological  activities  of  the  human  organism,  nor  in- 
hibit the  normal  manifestations  of  his  or  her  personality. 

The  influence  of  mind  upon  mind,  or  the  influence  of  suggestion, 
must  be  fully  comprehended  before  one  can  appreciate  the  dis- 
astrous influence  of  a  religion  not  in  accord  with  the  facts  as  re- 
vealed by  science.  Children,  and  grown  people  as  well,  are  capa- 
ble of  believing  only  those  things  that  come  within  the  domain  of 
personal  experience.  The  untrained  and  uneducated  mind,  unac- 
quainted with  the  facts  of  science,  can  be  taught  to  believe  any- 
thing, be  it  true  or  false,  and  the  majority  of  people  at  the  present 
time  go  through  life  fettered  by  beliefs  thrust  upon  them  during 
childhood.  The  greater  portion  of  the  old  people  of  our  age  are 
nothing  more  than  grown-up  children  so  far  as  brain  power  and 
intellectual  development  are  concerned.  The  only  hope  for  the  in- 
dividual to  escape  from  the  consequences  of  his  unfortunate  hered- 
ity and  environment  is  by  self-education,  self -development,  and 
self-control. 

The  religion  does  not  exist  and  will  never  exist  that  contains 
all  the  requirements  of  a  perfect  guidance  for  human  conduct. 
Evolution,  growth,  and  change  in  religious  concepts  must  keep  pace 
with  the  intellectual  development  of  mankind,  or  they  stand  as 
positive  hindrances  to  the  progress  of  all  that  conduces  to  the 
best  interest  of  the  human  race. 

No  sane  individual  can  protest  against  an  effort  to  promote  the 
moral  development  of  the  human  race,  but,  when  a  belief  is  pro- 
mulgated that  robs  this  life  of  its  zest  and  enthusiasm,  fetters  the 
human  mind,  and  weakens  the  body,  it  is  high  time  that  we  should 


GUIDANCE   OF   THE   SEXUAL   INSTINCT.  285 

manifest  character  and  true  manhood  sufficient  to  demand  a  higher, 
truer,  and  more  enlightened  philosophy  of  life.  The  old  anthropo- 
morphic conception  of  deity,  capricious  and  bloodthirsty,  must  be 
replaced  by  a  conception  that  embraces  the  idea  of  a  universe  that 
is  ruled  by  law.  Man,  as  an  intelligent  being,  must  be  recognized 
as  a  part  of  the  universal  intelligence  that  rules  the  world;  and, 
while  yet  under  the  rule  of  law,  it  is  his  privilege  to  discover  the 
laws  of  the  universe,  of  which  he  is  a  part,  and  to  so  conform  his 
life  and  conduct  thereto  that  health  and  happiness  can  be  main- 
tained. 

The  old  conception  of  this  life  as  a  vale  of  tears,  that  must  be 
endured  until  we  are  transported  to  a  locality  of  everlasting  happi- 
ness, must  be  replaced  by  one  in  which  life  is  regarded  as  our  op- 
portunity for  growth,  education,  and  development,  and  our  im- 
mortality must  consist  in  the  contribution  made  by  us  to  the  sum 
total  of  human  happiness. 

The  hope  of  humanity  consists  in  the  belief  that  each  human 
being  will  some  day  so  strive  to  contribute  his  best  efforts  to  the 
furtherance  of  the  highest  and  best  qualities  of  manhood  and 
womanhood,  that  he  may — like  a  tiny  pebble  that,  when  cast  into 
a  body  of  water,  causes  a  ripple  that  grows  larger  and  larger — 
affect  each  human  life  with  which  he  becomes  associated  in  such 
manner  that  his  influence  will  be  felt  in  the  evolution  of  the  human 
race  down  the  centuries  of  time  throughout  eternity. 

In  this  struggle  for  the  higher  development  of  mankind,  man 
and  woman  will  go  hand  in  hand,  side  by  side,  without  which 
united  effort  neither  can  attain  the  greatest  development  or  accom- 
plish the  best  service. 

The  time  comes  in  the  life  of  every  highly-developed  man  when 
his  strongest  desires — the  normal  aspirations  of  his  natural  virility 
—are  to  give  to  the  world  the  highest  and  best  expression  of  his 
life  in  deeds  of  useful  endeavor  and  in  helpful  service  in  perfect 
accord  with  the  laws  of  his  psychic  nature.  The  highly-developed 
woman  does  not  desire  to  hold  him  back  or  hinder  his  activities; 
on  the  contrary,  she  prefers  to  push  him  out  into  the  arena,  so  that 
her  woman's  femininity  will  not,  through  force  of  its  love,  cause 
him  to  be  weakened  and  to  grow  effeminate— to  lose  any  of  his 


286  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

normal  virility.  For,  no  matter  how  intensely  a  woman  may  love, 
if  she  is  true  and  her  love  is  pure,  she  prefers  not  the  continual 
presence  of  her  lover  at  her  feet,  but  to  watch  his  fight  with  his 
fellowman — to  see  him  conquer,  to  be  victorious,  to  know  he  loves 
the  struggle  because  he  loves  her — and  she  loves  and  adores  him 
as  her  hero  because  he  dares  and  does.  Thus  the  sexual  instinct 
finds  expression  in  the  higher  development  of  the  individual  and 
promotes  the  best  interest  of  the  human  race.  It  matters  not  how 
interested  a  man  or  woman  may  become  in  their  respective  work, 
or  how  worthy  its  purpose,  over  them  at  times  come  feelings  of 
"longing,  lonesomeness,  and  love,"  which  is  the  natural  attraction 
of  sex  to  sex,  without  which  no  life  is  normal,  and  through  which 
the  species  is  reproduced  and  happiness  obtained,  in  accordance 
with  the  natural  laws  governing  the  normal  instincts  of  all  human 
beings. 

"In  this  manner  we  should  strive  to  obtain  happiness — to  make 
this  earth  an  empire  of  love,  where  happy  and  healthy  people  can 
enjoy  their  existence,  and  the  mind  should  be  open  for  all  that  is 
beautiful,  pure,  and  true,  vibrating  with  joy  and  the  love  of  life. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

PSYCHOANALYSIS  IN  THE  TREATMENT  OF  THE 
PSYCHONEUROSES. 

America's  ablest  neurologists  and  psychiatrists  now  boldly  assert 
that  the  greatest  triumph  of  neurology  is  its  successful  employment 
of  measures  aimed  to  modify  the  mental  mechanism  underlying  the 
symptomatic  manifestations  presented  in  that  class  of  nervous  dis- 
eases designated  as  the  psychoneuroses,  which  embrace  hysteria, 
psychasthenia,  and  the  large  "heap"  of  neurotic  disturbances  in- 
cluded in  the  so-called  neurasthenia. 

This  sentiment  is  well  voiced  by  Dr.  J.  J.  Putnam,  professor  of 
nervous  and  mental  diseases  in  the  Harvard  Medical  School,  in 
these  well-chosen  words : 1 

"The  neurologists  of  the  present  day  tend  less  and  less  to  treat 
the  nervous  invalids  intrusted  to  their  care  in  accordance  with  the 
principles  of  a  narrow  'militarism'  or  as  subjects  for  cajoling, 
and  more  and  more  as  reasonable  beings,  possessed  of  consciences 
and  independent  wills,  and  capable  of  intelligent  co-operation.  In 
proportion  as  our  knowledge  of  mental  life  has  become  deeper  and 
more  accurate,  there  has  been  a  growing  tendency  to  seek  further 
and  further  for  the  causes  of  distressing  symptoms— whether  these 
causes  lie  in  the  environment  of  the  patient,  or  in  habits,  instincts, 
and  experiences  dating  back  to  the  years  of  childhood,  or  expressed 
in  inherited  physical  traits." 

The  interest  in  this  special  branch  of  applied  psychotherapeutic 
technic  has  arisen  from  the  investigations  of  Freud,  Bleuler,  Breuer, 
Babinski,  Jung,  Prince,  Sidis,  Meyer,  and  others,  and  has  resulted 
in  the  employment  of  a  method  of  diagnosis  and  treatment  of  the 
psychoneuroses  by  laying  bare  and  remedying  the  pathological 
mechanisms  underlying  the  symptomatic  manifestations  presented 


1  Psychotherapy,    by   Morton    Prince   and   others,    consisting   of   the   p?per5,.pJTe!!inl?J1 
before    the    American    Therapeutic    Society,     May,     1909.     Published    by    Richard 
Badger,    Boston. 

287 


288  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

in  the  individual  case,  and  the  technic  of  the  procedure  is  known  as 
psychoanalysis. 

It  is  more  especially  through  the  work  of  Freud,  of  Vienna,  that 
the  psychoanalytic  form  of  psychotherapy  has  been  given  to  the 
medical  profession.  That  the  method,  and  the  theory  upon  which 
it  is  based,  represents  one  of  the  most  important  steps  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  psychotherapy,  particularly  as  applied  to  the  treatment  of 
the  psychoneuroses,  and  is  destined  to  become  more  and  more  use- 
ful, just  in  proportion  as  the  theory  and  technic  of  its  application 
is  simplified  and  rendered  more  rational,  as  the  result  of  further  de- 
velopment, is  beyond  question  to  the  fair-minded  investigator. 
That  the  ability  to  successfully  apply  the  psychoanalytic  form  of 
psychotherapy  must  be  limited  to  those  having  a  special  adapta- 
bility for  comprehending,  appreciating,  and  employing  the  simpler 
methods  of  psychotherapeutic  technic  must  be  equally  certain. 
The  efficacy  of  any  therapeutic  or  surgical  procedure  will,  in  most 
cases,  depend  upon  the  development  of  the  personal  capacity  of  the 
individual  employing  it.  The  truth  of  this  assertion  can  not  be 
denied.  The  same  rule  holds  good  with  the  employment  of  the  psy- 
choanalytic method  of  treatment  as  applies  to  other  departments  of 
medical  practice.  Professional  skill  is  the  result  of  work,  study, 
and  painstaking  development. 

In  many  respects,  Freud's  psychology  harmonizes  with  my  own 
theoretical  explanations  for  the  results  obtained  from  other  methods 
of  employing  suggestion  in  all  classes  of  medical  and  surgical  prac- 
tice. The  essential  difference  in  his  technic  lies  in  his  method  of 
employing  suggestion  as  a  means  of  detecting  and  remedying  the 
effects  of  previous  harmful  suggestions — or  "psychic  traumas,"  as 
he  calls  them — due  to  experiences  occurring  in  early  childhood  and 
other  processes  of  experience.  The  essential  difference  in  his  theory 
is  in  his  conviction  that  the  dissociated  functionating  complexes 
which  are  within  the  domain  of  the  subconscious,  conserving  the 
painful  ideas  which  are  the  most  productive  factors  in  the  etiology 
of  neurotic  symptoms,  are,  in  the  ultimate  analysis,  those  consist- 
ing of  wishes  or  impulses  related  in  some  way  to  the  sexual  instinct, 
representing  the  pathological  fulfillment  of  a  repressed  wish,  and 
having  its  origin  in  the  sexual  incidents  of  infancy  and  early 


PSYCHOANALYSIS   IN    TREATMENT   OF   PS YCHONEU ROSES.          289 

childhood,  producing  the  traumas  which  are  the  psychogenetic  fac- 
tors responsible  for  the  neurosis  developed  in  later  life. 

I  will  discuss  these  two  points  of  technic  and  theory  in  which 
Freud's  methods  are  so  radically  different  from  my  own  after  show- 
ing the  points  of  similarity,  or  harmony,  existing  between  his  views 
and  those  set  forth  by  me  in  the  present  and  previous  editions  of 
this  book.  In  doing  so  I  hope  to  set  a  correct  valuation  on  Freud's 
contribution  to  the  psychology  of  the  psychoneuroses,  as  well  as  to 
illustrate  the  small  value  of  his  methods  of  psychotherapeutic 
application. 

The  ipse  dixit  of  some  recent  writers,  purporting  to  describe 
Freud's  methods,  denies  that  suggestion  plays  any  part  in  the 
method  of  employing  psychoanalysis,  or  that  it  is  to  its  efficacy  that 
the  cure  is  effected.  On  this  point  I  was  an  agnostic  until  read- 
ing a  description  of  his  technic  by  Freud  himself,  showing  that  he 
uses  suggestion  from  the  start  to  the  finish  of  his  psychoanalytic 
procedure,  with  the  special  intent  of  eliciting  the  autosuggestions 
of  the  patient,  so  that  the  mature  judgment  of  the  individual  pa- 
tient can  react  to  the  evidence  evoked  through  recalling  effectively 
to  his  memory  the  influence  of  experiences  of  the  forgotten  past, 
which  have  been  responsible  for  his  neurotic  symptoms.  In  this  he 
is  conforming  to  a  well-known  principle  known  by  every  one  mak- 
ing successful  employment  of  any  method  of  applied  suggestion — 
i.  e.,  that  every  suggestion,  to  be  effective,  must  be  presented  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  be  accepted  and  assimilated  as  an  autosugges- 
tion. No  suggestion  can  be  effective  if  not  presented  to  the  pa- 
tient in  such  a  manner  as  to  appeal  to  the  reason,  to  the  voluntary 
desire,  to  the  intelligent  will  of  the  patient,  unless  it  be  by  forcibly 
attempting  to  dominate,  coerce,  or  intimidate  the  patient,  a  method 
which  is  as  unreasonable  as  the  attempt  to  hold  up  a  victim  at  the 
point  of  a  pistol,  and  is  unjustifiable  under  any  circumstances. 

This  method  of  intimidation,  or  of  forcing  a  suggestion  upon 
the  undeveloped  personality,  is  the  method  of  the  stage  hypnotist, 
and  is  the  method  employed  by  Freud  to  extort  from  the  subcon- 
sciousness  of  the  undeveloped  hysterical  patient  a  revelation  of 
his  most  intimately  guarded  psychic  processes,  as  is  clearly  shown 
by  Freud's  description  of  his  technic,  though  he  carefully  omits  a 


290  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

record  of  the  suggestions  given  to  the  patient,  which  would  prove 
the  correctness  of  my  assertion. 

The  reader  must  study  Freud  himself,  as  shown  in  his  writings, 
to  appreciate  the  dominating  power  of  his  suggestions  in  his  effort 
to  invade  the  secret  precincts  of  the  human  soul,  or  to  understand 
how  he  exacts  from  the  subconsciousness  of  his  patients  the  re- 
pressed ideas  which  were  incompatible  with  the  wishes  of  the  con- 
scious ego,  and  were  producing  the  disagreeable  feelings  responsible 
for  the  symptomatic  manifestations. 

In  so  far  as  the  principle,  or  theory,  is  concerned,  when  not 
carried  to  the  extreme  of  forcing  the  individual  neurotic  to  reveal 
the  remote  and  innocent  experiences  of  childhood,  it  contains  much 
that  is  sane,  sound,  practical,  and  useful.  But  the  application  of 
the  principle  involved  has  its  limitations,  and  these  are  not  recog- 
nized by  Freud  or  set  forth  in  his  writings.  The  method  as  advo- 
cated by  him  is  liable  to  produce  untold  harm,  even  to  the  extent 
of  inciting  the  patient,  under  certain  conditions,  to  self-destruction, 
or  to  be  so  painfully  self-conscious  of  his  or  her  shortcomings  that 
it  is  capable  of  rendering  life  more  unbearable,  and  will  serve  to 
add  to  the  severity  of  the  neurosis  instead  of  remedying  it. 

Be  it  far  from  me  to  discredit  the  theories  and  technic  elucidated 
by  Freud,  and  described  in  his  writings,  which  have  been  accepted 
by  so  many  able  physicians  as  "scientific  psychotherapy."  On  the 
other  hand,  let  us  not  forsake  or  discredit  the  results  of  our  own 
investigations  which  have  proved  to  be  of  practical  utility  in  the 
hands  of  thousands  of  conscientious  American  physicians. 

In  any  department  of  human  knowledge,  coming  as  the  result  of 
painstaking  investigation,  we  can  react  to  the  influence  of  ideas 
only  according  to  our  individual  experience.  Consequently,  no 
two  men  can  view  the  ideas  obtained  through  personal  association 
or  from  literature  in  the  same  light.  It  is  in  this  spirit  that  I  shall 
attempt  an  elucidation  of  psychoanalysis,  for  Freud's  method  can 
never  be  my  method.  All  that  I  obtain  from  his  theory  and  technic 
must  go  through  the  refining  alembic  of  my  own  reasoning,  and, 
whether  it  is  or  is  not  made  to  be  of  more  practical  utility  to  the 
reader  by  the  resulting  modification,  will  still  remain  a  matter  of 
individual  viewpoint.  My  purpose  is  not  to  seek  the  approval  of 


PSYCHOANALYSIS    IN    TREATMENT   OF    PSYCHONEUROSES.          291 

the  small  handful  of  pupils  of  Freud  and  Jung,  but  to  exact  the 
practical  from  the  subconsciousness  of  the  ideas  presented  by  these 
men  after  the  method  of  psychoanalysis,  and  give  to  the  general 
practitioner  an  account  of  the  underlying  principles  in  such  man- 
ner as  to  be  of  practical  utility.  I  shall  endeavor  to  make  Freud's 
ideas  conform  to  my  individual  viewpoint,  though  setting  them 
forth  for  the  judgment  of  the  reader  to  decide  for  himself,  and  for 
the  forthcoming  distortion  of  the  originator's  concept  the  reader 
must  not  hold  Freud  entirely  responsible.  If  the  result  of  my 
effort  can  give  the  reader  only  a  sufficient  glimpse  into  the  subject 
of  psychoanalysis  to  serve  as  an  incentive  to  a  further  investiga- 
tion of  the  Freudian  theories,  together  with  the  evidence  against 
his  extreme  theories  as  viewed  by  other  writers,  I  will  be  more  than 
compensated  for  the  audacity  manifested  in  undertaking  to  express 
my  individual  convictions  on  this  subject. 

My  sixteen  years  of  experience  with  the  employment  of  psycho- 
therapeutic  procedures  in  all  departments  of  medicine  and  surgery, 
in  conjunction  with  all  other  sane  and  rational  surgical,  medicinal, 
hygienic,  dietetic,  and  other  therapeutic  procedures,  has  been  con- 
served as  functionating  complexes,  which  do  not  react  to  the  stimu- 
lus of  high-sounding  theories  like  those  newly  created  complexes 
only  recently  formed  in  virgin  soil.  In  other  words,  I  am  unable 
to  react  to  the  teaching  of  Freud  in  the  same  manner  as  the  man 
with  little  or  no  experience  in  the  general  application  of  psycho- 
therapeutic  procedures  reacts  to  all  classes  of  medical  practice. 

It  was  with  intense  interest  that  I  read  the  reports  of  the  cases 
treated  by  Freud,  in  the  translation  by  Brill,  entitled  "Hysteria 
and  the  Psychoneuroses, "  as  well  as  his  addresses  delivered  on  the 
occasion  of  the  twentieth  anniversary  of  the  opening  of  Clarke  Uni- 
versity, translated  from  the  German  by  Harry  W.  Chase,  on  "The 
Origin  and  Development  of  Psychoanalysis."  These  contributions 
by  Freud  were  of  particular  interest  to  me  because  of  the  strong 
similarity  of  his  theories  and  practical  technic,  together  with  the 
radical  differences  of  the  same,  to  my  own  personal  experiences, 
theories,  and  writings,  though  expressed  in  an  entirely  different 
terminology,  and  limited  in  its  application  by  him  to  only  a  small 
field. 


292  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

So  far  as  his  results  from  the  employment  of  the  psychoanalytic 
form  of  psychotherapy  are  concerned,  I  have  herein  reported  a 
much  greater  variety  of  cases,  showing  the  applicability  of  sugges- 
tion both  with  and  without  hypnosis,  and  employed  in  all  varieties 
of  medical  and  surgical  practice.  Moreover,  so  far  as  its  applica- 
tion to  the  treatment  of  hysteria  is  concerned,  I  have  reported  many 
more  cases,  showing  results  obtained  from  the  employment  of  the 
simpler  methods  in  equally,  if  not  more,  difficult  cases,  and  which 
were  accomplished  in  only  a  small  fraction  of  the  time  required  by 
the  technic  described  and  elucidated  by  Freud,  and  not  limited 
exclusively  to  the  higher  classes  of  intelligence,  which  he  has  most 
emphatically  assured  us  are  the  only  patients  suitable  for  the  em- 
ployment of  his  method. 

As  many  hystericals  are,  like  the  Christian  scientists,  inordi- 
nately proud  of  their  superior  "intelligence,"  this  claim  will  no 
doubt  catch  many  patients.  In  this  claim  for  the  adaptability  of 
the  method  only  to  those  of  superior  intelligence  we  discern  a  very 
clever  use  of  disguised  suggestion  as  a  means  of  obtaining  patients. 
A  very  good  ruse,  so  far  as  the  interest  of  the  physician  is  con- 
cerned, but  of  no  value  for  the  interest  of  the  scientific  application 
of  psychotherapy. 

In  deference  to  Freud's  methods,  I  must  repeat  again,  the  reader 
can  never  fairly  appreciate  the  value  of  his  contributions  to  the 
evolution  of  psychotherapy,  particularly  his  psychology  as  applied 
to  the  better  understanding  of  the  psychoneuroses,  without  a  care- 
ful study  of  the  methods  and  theories  as  presented  by  Freud  him- 
self, nor  will  he  be  able  to  fairly  estimate  the  theories  of  Freud 
and  other  foreign  investigators  without  a  careful  study  of  the 
writings  of  Prince,  Miinsterberg,  and  Sidis,  to  say  nothing  of  Put- 
nam, Meyer,  Brill,  and  other  well-known  American  writers,  whose 
names  are  mentioned  in  the  preface  of  the  present  edition  of  this 
book.  The  more  thoroughly  one  studies  this  subject  from  the  writ- 
ings of  all  who  have  contributed  to  its  development,  the  better  will 
he  be  able  to  judge  of  the  practicability  and  soundness  of  the  meth- 
ods which  the  writer  has  given  to  the  profession,  and  which  stand 
unscathed  and  unreproached  by  all  of  these  scholarly  investigators. 
In  the  hewing  out  of  the  crude,  coherent  mass  our  conception  of 


PSYCHOANALYSIS   IN    TREATMENT   OP   PSYCHONEUROSES.          293 

rational  psychotherapy,  let  us  adhere  to  the  line  of  truth,  letting 
the  chips  fall  where  they  will. 

As  to  Freud's  sexual  theories  and  their  relation  to  the  psycho- 
genetic  origin  of  the  psychoneuroses,  I  am  not  prepared  to  indorse 
them.  On  the  other  hand,  I  am  free  to  say  that  more  and  more 
have  I  become  convinced  of  the  importance  of  the  guidance  of  the 
sexual  instinct  in  the  earliest  years  of  infancy  and  childhood,  con- 
struing the  "sexual  instinct"  in  the  broad  manner  indicated  in  the 
foregoing  chapter  on  this  subject.  As  unpopular  as  is  the  sexual 
subject  in  America,  I  have  dared  to  express  my  convictions  freely, 
however  much  the  personal  sacrifice  may  prove.  The  change  of  a 
single  word  in  Freud 's  sexual  theories  and  their  relation  to  hysteria 
would  make  them  very  nearly  harmonize  with  my  individual  opin- 
ions on  this  subject. 

Freud  tells  that  "he  who  understands  the  language  of  hysteria 
can  understand  that  the  neurosis  deals  only  with  the  repressed 
sexuality.  One  should,  however,  understand  the  sexual  function  in 
its  proper  sphere  as  circumscribed  by  the  infantile  predisposition. 
Where  a  banal  emotion  has  to  be  added  to  the  causation  of  the  dis- 
ease, the  analysis  regularly  shows  that  the  sexual  components  of 
the  traumatic  experience,  which  are  never  missing,  have  exercised 
the  pathogenic  effect." 

I  would  transpose  his  statement  as  follows :  He  who  understands 
the  language  of  hysteria  can  understand  that  the  neurosis  deals 
only  with  a  repressed  personality.  One  should,  however,  under- 
stand that  sexuality  is  one  of  the  component  elements  of  every  nor- 
mal human  being,  and  that  all  the  elements  going  to  make  up  the 
development  of  the  personality  are  influenced  by  hereditary  pre- 
disposition, and  that  where  a  banal  emotion  has  been  added  to  the 
causation  of  the  disease  the  analysis  regularly  shows  that  the  en- 
vironing influences  of  early  childhood  have  been  the  determining 
factors  in  contributing  to  the  development  of  the  neurosis,  and  the 
sexual  component  may  or  may  not  have  entered  into  the  traumatic 
experience  exercising  the  pathogenic  effect. 

As  long  back  as  1897  I  had  frequently  removed  hysterical  symp- 
toms by  employing  suggestion  in  the  hypnotic  state  to  detect  the 
forgotten  painful  experience  contributing  to  the  development  of  the 


294  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

symptoms  manifested,  discussed  the  incidents  which  were  painful 
and  objectionable  to  the  conscious  ego,  and  again  hypnotized  my 
patient  for  the  purpose  of  removing  the  hysterical  symptoms  mani- 
fested, with  complete  and  permanent  success.  By  this  means  I  not 
only  brought  into  the  consciousness  of  the  patient  memories  of  pain- 
ful experiences  which  were  responsible  for  the  feelings  of  depression 
— nervousness,  insomnia,  and  other  neurotic  manifestations — but  by 
the  clearer  understanding  of  the  gross  psychogenetic  factors,  or 
" psychic  traumas,"  contributing  to  the  development  of  the  symp- 
toms with  which  I  had  to  deal,  I  was  better  enabled  to  re-educate 
my  patient,  after  I  had  obtained  this  new  insight  into  his  relations 
to  his  life's  problems,  so  as  to  equip  him  for  readaptation  to  his 
present  and  future  environment. 

In  many  of  these  patients  the  irritating  subconscious  factor,  or 
series  of  factors,  which  was  responsible  for  the  repression  and  re- 
tardation of  the  development  of  the  patient's  personality  had  so  in- 
terfered with  the  functions  of  the  physiological  machinery  as  to 
markedly  lessen  the  mental  and  physical  capacities  of  the  patient, 
and  he  was  unfit  to  take  up  the  duties  and  responsibilities  incident 
to  the  strain  and  stress  of  his  occupation  until  his  physiological  ma- 
chinery could  re-establish  the  lessened  physical  resistance  which  had 
resulted  as  a  consequence  of  the  disturbing  psychogenetic  factor  or 
factors.  In  such  cases,  detecting  the  psychogenetic  factors  was 
only  the  beginning  of  the  treatment  by  other  means.  Until  the 
physiological  machinery  of  the  patient  could  be  qualified  to  meet 
the  duties  and  responsibilities  incident  to  his  struggle  for  exist- 
ence, hypnotic  suggestion,  suggestion  without  hypnotism,  reason- 
ing, persuasion,  re-education,  exercise,  gymnastics,  and  dietetic  and 
hygienic  instruction  were  all  essential  to  the  qualification  of  the 
patient  for  obtaining  a  sufficiently  stable  mental  and  physical  con- 
dition commensurate  with  a  happy,  useful  existence.  These  pa- 
tients were  taken  from  every  department  of  life. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  cases  reported  by  Freud  were  patients 
whose  lot  in  life  had  been  without  the  physical  strain  and  stress 
of  the  individuals  constituting  95  percent  of  our  American  citizen- 
ship. His  patients,  according  to  his  reports,  knew  nothing  of 
physical  hardships.  They  were  reared  more  like  "hot  house  flow- 


PSYCHOANALYSIS    IN    TREATMENT   OF   PSYCHONEUROSES.          295 

ers,"  as  his  reports  clearly  show  and  as  he  positively  assures  us, 
though  he  uses  other  words  to  express  it.  Moreover,  the  expense 
of  treatment  by  methods  requiring  as  long  a  time  as  is  required  by 
Freud  to  accomplish  results  according  to  his  "favorite  method" 
would  bar  fully  95  percent  of  the  average  American  psychoneu- 
rotics,  since  we  are  informed  by  one  of  his  pupils  that  Freud  de- 
votes an  hour  each  day  for  from  one  to  three  years  to  effect  a  cure 
in  some  of  his  cases.  Even  those  effected  by  him  in  much  shorter 
time  are  at  a  considerable  expense  to  the  patient  on  account  of  the 
relatively  long  time  required. 

Freud  tells  us:1  "The  process  is  toilsome  and  wearisome  for 
the  physician;  it  presumes  a  profound  interest  for  psychological 
incidents  as  well  as  personal  sympathy  for  the  patient.  I  could 
not  conceive  myself  entering  deeply  into  the  psychic  mechanism 
of  a  hysteria  in  a  person  who  appeared  to  me  common  and  dis- 
agreeable, and  who  would  not,  on  closer  acquaintanceship,  be  able 
to  awaken  in  me  human  sympathy;  whereas  I  can  well  treat  a 
tabetic  or  a  rheumatic  patient  regardless  of  such  personal  liking. 
Not  less  are  the  requisites  on  the  patient's  side.  The  process  is 
especially  inapplicable  below  a  certain  niveau  of  intelligence.  It 
is  rendered  extremely  difficult  wherever  there  is  the  least  tinge  of 
weakmindedness.  It  requires  the  full  consent  and  attention  of  the 
patients — but,  above  all,  their  confidence,  for  the  analysis  regularly 
leads  to  the  inmost  and  most  sacredly  guarded  psychic  processes. 
A  large  proportion  of  the  patients  suitable  for  such  treatment  with- 
draw from  the  physician  as  soon  as  they  become  cognizant  whither 
his  investigations  tend ;  to  them  the  physician  remains  a  stranger. 
In  others,  who  have  determined  to  give  themselves  up  to  the  phy- 
sician and  bestow  their  confidence  upon  him — something  usually 
voluntarily  given,  but  never  demanded — in  all  those,  I  say,  it  is 
hardly  avoidable  that  the  personal  relation  to  the  physician  should 
not  become  unduly  prominent,  at  least  for  some  time.  Indeed,  it 
seems  as  if  such  influence  exerted  by  the  physician  is  a  condition 
under  which  alone  a  solution  of  the  problem  is  made  possible.  I 
do  not  believe  that  it  makes  any  essential  difference  in  this  connec- 
tion whether  we  make  use  of  hypnosis,  or  have  to  avoid  or  substi- 


1  Hysteria  and  Other  Psyehoneuroses. — Translation  by  Brill,  page  84. 


296  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

tute  it.  Yet  fairness  demands  that  we  emphasize  the  fact  that, 
although  these  inconveniences  are  inseparable  from  our  method, 
they  nevertheless  can  not  be  charged  to  it.  It  is  much  more  evi- 
dent that  they  are  formed  in  the  preliminary  neurosis  to  be  cured, 
and  that  they  attach  themselves  to  every  medical  activity  which 
intensively  concerns  itself  with  the  patient,  and  produce  in  him 
a  psychic  change.  I  can  see  no  harm  or  danger  in  the  application 
of  hypnosis  even  in  those  cases  where  it  was  used  excessively.  The 
causes  for  the  harm  produced  lay  elsewhere  and  deeper." 

So,  according  to  the  statements  of  the  originator  of  psychoanal- 
ysis, by  the  method  employed  and  taught  by  him,  the  agent  stands 
condemned,  so  far  as  its  value  to  the  greater  majority  of  psycho- 
neurotics  is  concerned. 

In  reading  the  latter  half  of  the  above  quotation  from  Freud,  I 
could  hardly  believe  the  evidence  of  my  own  senses,  since  I  had 
learned  from  some  of  his  pupils  that  he  regarded  the  employment 
of  hypnosis  as  an  unjustifiable  personal  relation  between  the  phy- 
sician and  patient,  and,  so  far  as  my  limited  knowledge  of  the 
opinions  of  Freud  will  warrant,  I  have  found  no  statement  from 
him  to  contradict  his  expressed  opinion  that  he  "can  see  no  danger 
in  the  application  of  hypnosis  even  where  it  was  used  excessively." 

In  the  name  of  common  honesty,  why  do  some  recent  writers 
make  such  statements  as  to  convey  the  idea  that  the  relation  be- 
tween a  physician  and  his  patient  where  psychoanalysis  is  employed 
is  so  essentially  different  from  that  where  hypnotic  suggestion,  or 
any  other  medical  or  surgical  agency,  is  employed  ? 

The  jealousy  exhibited  by  some  neurologists,  going  so  far  as  to 
maliciously  falsify,  in  their  zeal  to  limit  psychotherapeutic  expedi- 
ents to*  the  small  handful  of  Freud's  personal  pupils,  who  are  pur- 
ported to  be  the  only  individuals  qualified  to  employ  psychoanal- 
ysis, is,  to  say  the  least,  unworthy  of  scientific  men.  If  they  mean 
to  follow  their  leader,  let  them  learn  the  a  b  c  of  his  honesty  of 
purpose  and  strive  to  emulate  his  example. 

The  reader  is  now  prepared,  if  he  has  followed  me  comprehen- 
sively, to  understand  my  reasons  for  not  being  so  enthusiastic  over 
the  employment  of  psychoanalysis,  as  an  exclusive  psychothera- 
peutic agent,  in  the  treatment  of  the  psychoneuroses,  as  the  Freud- 


PSYCHOANALYSIS   IN    TREATMENT   OF   PSYCHONEUROSES.          297 

ians,  who  would  have  us  believe  that  this  method  of  treatment  is 
the  only  psychotherapeutic  agency  worthy  of  employment  by  the 
' '  well-trained  neurologist. ' ' 

My  relation  to  the  medical  profession,  in  regard  to  psychothera- 
peutic methods,  is  such  that  I  am  obliged  to  stand  alone.  My  ef- 
forts have  been  to  help  the  general  practitioner  to  procure  for 
himself,  from  the  great  mass  of  psychotherapeutic  knowledge,  the 
useful  and  practical,  as  applied  in  the  treatment  of  all  classes  of 
patients,  coming  under  the  domain  of  the  general  practice  of  medi- 
cine. All  psychotherapeutic  methods  look  alike  to  me,  and  I  can 
not  afford  to  give  undue  prominence  to  any  one  procedure  until  its 
proven  utility  warrants  its  high  commendation.  The  fact  remains, 
however,  that  the  medical  profession  is  indebted  to  Freud  for  a 
most  important  contribution  to  the  evolution  of  psychotherapy,  par- 
ticularly his  psychology  of  the  psychoneuroses,  however  much  his 
method  of  therapeutic  application  deserves  to  be  improved. 

However  much  his  technic  may  be  altered  or  his  theories  chal- 
lenged, the  truths  that  he  has  set  forth  will  attest  his  deep  compre- 
hension of  human  nature,  and  emphasize  the  importance  of  a  better 
understanding  of  the  psychogenetic  factors  contributing  to  the  eti- 
ology of  the  psychoneuroses,  just  in  proportion  as  his  work  is  stud- 
ied by  the  intelligent,  open-minded  investigator,  who  holds  himself 
well  in  hand,  with  the  view  of  finding  the  sane,  the  useful,  and  the 
practical  contained  in  his  presentation.  From  the  darkness  of  a 
comparatively  unexplored  field  of  scientific  study,  Freud  has 
brought  to  light  many  beautiful  truths,  however  mixed  with  the 
irrational  they  may  be,  which  are  useful  and  practical. 

Without  an  attempt  at  discrimination  for  the  time  being,  let  us 
now  see  what  some  of  Freud's  ideas  are,  so  as  to  be  better  equipped 
to  understand  the  therapeutic  application  of  psychoanalysis,  taking, 
first,  a  glance  into  Freud's  psychology,  upon  which  the  psycho- 
analytic method  of  treatment,  by  whatever  modification  it  may  be 
therapeutically  applied,  is  founded. 

Freud  has  conclusively  demonstrated  that  it  is  the  emotional  life 
which  furnishes  the  dynamic  energy  which  guides  and  controls  the 
actions  of  both  normal  and  abnormal  persons.  Every  case  of  hys- 
teria is  the  result  of  a  series  of  psychic  traumas,  occurring  at  some 


298  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

period  in  the  life  of  the  neurotic,  and  these  represent  the  steps  in 
the  development  of  the  neurosis.  No  single  experience  can  be  re- 
sponsible for  the  symptoms  manifested,  but  usually  several  or  many, 
each  contributing  to  the  effect  of  the  former  experiences.  Every 
experience  which  produces  the  painful  effect  of  fear,  anxiety, 
shame,  or  other  psychic  pain  may  act  as  a  psychic  trauma.  The 
psychic  trauma,  or  the  memory  of  the  same,  acts  like  a  foreign 
body,  which,  even  long  after  its  penetration,  must  continue  to  act 
like  a  new  causative  factor. 

According  to  Freud,  the  etiologically  effective  traumas  from 
which  hysterical  symptoms  are  derived  reach  to  experiences  which 
belong  to  the  patient's  childhood  and  concern  his  sexual  life. 
Even  where  a  banal  emotion  of  a  nonsexual  nature  has  occasioned 
the  outburst  of  the  disease,  this  can  be  traced  back  to  the  sexual 
traumas  of  childhood. 

"The  incomparable  significance  of  sexual  experiences  in  the  eti- 
ology of  the  psychoneuroses  seems  therefore  firmly  established,  and 
this  fact  remains  until  today  one  of  the  main  supports  of  the 
theory."1 

In  the  application  of  psychoanalysis  for  the  relief  of  the  psycho- 
neurosis  it  is  necessary  to  reproduce  from  the  subconscious  into 
the  conscious  memory  of  the  patient,  the  entire  series  of  pathogenic 
memories  in  chronological  order,  the  last  coming  first  and  the  first 
last. 

The  nervous  system  faithfully  conserves  the  experiences  and 
"complexes"  resulting  from  the  emotional  excitations  during  the 
life  of  the  patient — stand  like  monuments,  conserving  the  original 
experiences — so  that  hysterical  patients  suffer  from  conscious  or 
unconscious  reminiscences,  from  which  they  are  powerless  to  es- 
cape. This  conservation  and  fixation  of  the  experiences  producing 
the  psychic  traumas  are  the  essential  characteristics  of  the  neu- 
rosis. When  these  complexes  are  stimulated,  the  patient  is  under 
the  embarrassing  situation  of  having  to  suppress  strong  feelings, 
or  he  must  give  vent  to  them  in  conscious  words  or  actions.  Only 
childhood  experiences  can  explain  the  excessive  sensitiveness  to 
later  traumas,  and  only  when  these  memory  traces,  which  are 

1  Hysteria  and  Other   Psychoneuroses — Translation    by    Brill,    page    188. 


PSYCHOANALYSIS    IN    TREATMENT   OP   PSYCHONEUROSES.          299 

almost  always  forgotten,  are  discovered  and  made  conscious  is  the 
power  developed  to  banish  the  symptoms. 

Freud  further  tells  us  that,  as  a  protective  measure,  the  indi- 
vidual receiving  a  psychic  trauma  attempts  to  force  out  the  pain- 
ful and  disagreeable  idea  from  his  conscious  memory,  resulting 
frequently  in  a  splitting  off  from  the  main  content  of  the  conscious 
personality,  the  complexes  conserving  the  experience.  Though 
submerged  below  the  threshold  of  consciousness,  these  emotional 
complexes  take  on  an  automatic  or  independent  activity.  Thus 
the  individual,  being  unaware  of  the  functionating  of  the  com- 
plexes conserving  the  emotions,  feeling  tones,  and  other  sensations, 
is  harassed  by  neurotic  manifestations,  to  be  reproduced  in  his 
conduct  as  often  as  they  are  stimulated  by  similar  associations. 
In  the  same  individual  several  mental  groupings  are  possible,  func- 
tionating independently  of  each  other,  presenting,  it  may  be,  a 
double  or  multiple  personality.  "When  such  splitting  occurs,  the 
conscious  personality  represents  one  or  the  other  of  the  respective 
mental  groups,  while  the  other,  or  others,  remains  unconscious. 
The  hysterical  is  incapable  of  correlating  and  unifying  the  various 
mental  states  resulting  from  his  manifold  experiences — hence  his 
tendency  to  mental  dissociation. 

Freud  employs  suggestion  by  the  induction  of  a  state  of  sug- 
gestibility which  might  be  regarded  as  a  light  hypnosis,  though 
he  claims  no  similarity  to  this  condition  of  abstraction  to  hypnosis, 
to  revive  from  the  subconscious  the  forgotten  experiences,  fre- 
quently having  considerable  resistance  to  overcome,  before  extort- 
ing from  the  subconsciousness  memories  that  were  apparently  lost. 
On  this  idea  is  based  his  theory  of  the  psychic  mechanism  of  hys- 
teria. In  order  to  cure  his  patient,  it  was  only  necessary  to  bring 
to  bear  suggestion  with  sufficient  effectiveness  to  exact  from  the 
subconsciousness  the  memory  of  the  pathogenic  experiences  that 
had  been  crowded  out  of  the  consciousness  of  the  patient  by  the 
repression  process,  which  he  regards  as  characteristic  of  the  mech- 
anism of  hysteria.  He  informs  us  that  in  all  such  experiences  it 
happened  that  a  wish  had  been  aroused,  which  was  in  sharp  oppo- 
sition to  the  other  desires  of  the  individual,  which  was  not  capable 
of  being  reconciled  with  the  ethical,  esthetic,  and  personal  preten- 


300  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

sions  of  the  patient's  conscious  personality;  that  there  had  been 
a  short  conflict,  and  the  end  of  the  inner  struggle  was  the  repres- 
sion of  the  idea  which  presented  itself  to  the  subconsciousness  as 
the  bearer  of  this  irreconcilable  wish.  This  was,  then,  repressed 
from  consciousness  and  forgotten.  The  incompatibility  of  the  idea 
in  question  with  the  ''ego"  of  the  patient  was  the  motive  for  the 
repression — the  ethical  and  other  pretensions  of  the  individual 
were  the  repressing  forces. 

The  presence  of  the  incompatible  wish,  or  the  duration  of  the 
conflict,  Freud  considers,  had  given  rise  to  a  high  degree  of  mental 
pain,  which  pain  was  avoided  by  repression.  The  later  process 
is  evidently  in  such  a  case  a  device  for  the  protection  of  the  con- 
scious personality.  However,  the  repressed  presentation  then 
avenges  itself  by  becoming  pathogenic,  and  the  hysterical  symptom 
is  a  species  of  self-gratification.  The  disagreeable  idea  is  rendered 
harmless  to  the  conscious  personality  of  the  hysteric  because  the 
force  of  the  trauma  is  transformed  into  physical  manifestations, 
a  process  which  Freud  designates  as  conversion. 

The  embarrassing  psychic  conflict  characteristic  of  neurotic  pa- 
tients is  frequently  exhibited.  Freud  considers  it  an  attempt  of 
the  ego  to  defend  itself  from  painful  memories,  but  it  does  not 
necessarily  result  in  complete  dissociation  or  splitting  of  the  per- 
sonality. Just  how  the  "repression"  contributes  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  hysterical  symptoms,  and  how  these  symptomatic 
manifestations  connect  with  the  pathogenic  experiences  causing  the 
psychic  trauma,  is  not  clear.  It  must  be  hypothetically  assumed, 
and  the  correctness  of  the  theory  demonstrated  by  the  results  ob- 
tained from  psychoanalytic  therapy,  as  the  cure  of  the  symptoms 
imist  be  traced  over  the  same  route  to  the  suppressed  idea. 

However  completely  the  painful  ideas  may  have  been  driven  out 
from  the  conscious  memory,  the  nervous  mechanism  conserving 
them,  at  the  expense  of  a  great  amount  of  psychic  pain  to  the  pa- 
tient, still  exists  in  the  subconsciousness  as  a  suppressed  wish,  ready 
to  functionate  in  a  disguised  and  distorted  manner,  accompanied 
by  the  same  painful  sensations  that  were  produced  by  the  original 
experience,  and  from  which  the  patient  believed  he  was  relieved  by 
the  process  of  repression.  The  cure  is  effected,  under  such  coudi- 


PSYCHOANALYSIS   IN    TREATMENT   OF   PSYCHONEUROSES.          301 

tions,  by  convincing  the  conscious  personality  of  the  patient  that 
he  was  wrong  in  rejecting  the  pathogenic  wish,  which  he  may  ac- 
cept entirely  or  in  part,  or  the  wish  may  be  directed  to  a  higher 
goal,  in  channels  free  from  objection  to  the  conscious  ego,  by  a 
process  of  sublimation;  or  the  rejection  may  be  regarded  as  the 
right  disposition  of  the  wish,  in  which  case  the  automatic  mech- 
anism of  the  complex  conserving  the  repressed  wish  may  become 
so  changed  that  it  becomes  an  indifferent  functionating  complex,  or 
one  conserving  entirely  different  associations.  Thus  the  cure  of 
the  patient  is  effected,  and  he  becomes  master  of  himself. 

Freud  has  explained  with  repeated  emphasis  that  the  effectivity 
of  psychoanalytic  therapy  depends  upon  a  reproduction  of  the 
emotional  excitement  accompanied  by  the  original  traumatic  ex- 
perience. If  the  patient  is  reproducing  the  traumatic  scene  to  the 
physician,  the  process  has  no  curative  effect  if,  by  some  peculiar 
chance,  there  is  no  development  of  emotion.  How  he  gets  the  adult 
to  reproduce  the  emotions  caused  by  infantile  and  childhood  "sex- 
ual traumas"  is  not  clear  to  me.  At  any  rate,  he  regards  the 
emotional  processes  as  being  that  upon  which  the  illness  of  the 
patient  and  the  restoration  to  health  are  dependent.  The  illness 
of  the  patient  results  because  the  emotion  developed  in  the  patho- 
genic situation  was  prevented  from  escaping  normally,  and  hys- 
terical symptoms  are  due  to  the  fact  that  these  "imprisoned"  emo- 
tions undergo  a  series  of  abnormal  changes.  They  are  conserved 
as  an  ever  present  source  of  psychical  disturbance,  and  are  trans- 
ferred into  bodily  innervations  and  inhibitions,  which  present 
themselves  as  the  physical  symptoms  of  the  disease. 

Since  it  is  the  "reproduction  of  the  emotional  excitement  accom- 
panied by  the  original  experience"  upon  which  Freud  depends  to 
effect  his  cures,  I  see  in  his  method  nothing  but  a  process  of  nag- 
ging his  patient  about  "sexual  incidents  of  life,"  by  which  means, 
the  emotions  are  deeply  stirred  or  aroused,  and  in  this  particularly 
suggestible  moment  he  appears  pleased  to  have  discovered  "a 
psychic  trauma,"  which  was  no  doubt  produced  by  his  process  of 
torture,  and  the  assurance  given  to  the  patient  that  an  important 
step  in  the  cure  of  her  hysteria  had  been  accomplished  gave  her 


302  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

a  feeling  of  relief  until  the  next  hour  of  digging  into  the  sexual 
incidents  of  her  early  life  should  be  resumed. 

Under  the  guise  of  religion  I  have  frequently  witnessed  a  stir- 
ring of  the  emotions  in  hysterical  subjects,  and  noticed  the  effec- 
tiveness of  the  suggestions  of  the  pulpit  orator  in  producing  a 
state  of  extreme  delight  in  such  subjects,  and  in  sending  them  away 
with  a  feeling  of  well-being  in  the  extreme.  I  can  see  nothing  but 
the  same  method  of  using  suggestion  in  disguise  by  Freud's  proc- 
ess of  holding  the  patient's  attention,  day  after  day  for  a  year  or 
more,  to  ideas  concerning  her  sexual  experiences,  consisting  of 
impulses  and  "wishes"  during  early  childhood,  as  well  as  adult 
life,  and  finally  succeeding  in  so  embarrassing^  the  unstable  per- 
sonality that  she  bursts  into  tears,  or  exhibits  other  marked  mani- 
festations of  emotion,  thus  obtaining  relief  from  the  "psychoanal- 
ysis" for  that  day,  as  she  is  assured  that  another  step  in  the  "cure" 
is  effected. 

One  of  the  strongest  arguments  in  favor  of  my  opinion  that 
hysteria  and  other  neurotic  manifestations  are  the  result  of  an 
environment  of  early  childhood,  which  was  responsible  for  the  re- 
pressed personality  or  the  retardation  of  the  normal  psychic  and 
physical  development,  is  found  in  the  following  quotation  from 
Freud : 1 

' '  The  former  value  of  the  person  should  not  be  overlooked  in  the 
disease,  and  you  should  refuse  a  patient  who  does  not  possess  a 
certain  degree  of  education,  and  whose  character  is  not  in  a  meas- 
ure reliable.  We  must  not  forget  that  there  are  also  healthy  per- 
sons who  are  good  for  nothing,  and  that,  if  they  show  only  a  mere 
touch  of  the  neurosis,  one  is  only  too  much  inclined  to  blame  the 
disease  for  incapacitating  such  inferior  persons." 

Showing  the  limited  scope  of  the  measure,  as  advocated  by  Freud 
and  set  forth  in  his  writings,  I  quote  again : 

' '  If  one  wishes  to  take  a  safe  course,  he  should  limit  his  selection 
to  persons  of  a  normal  state,  for  in  psychoanalytic  procedures  it  is 
from  the  normal  that  we  seize  upon  the  morbid.  Psychoses,  con- 
fusional  states,  and  marked  (I  might  say  toxic)  depressions  are 
unsuitable  for  analysis,  at  least  as  it  is  practiced  today. ' ' 

1  Hysteria  and  Other   Psychoneuroses. — Translation   by   Brill,    page    181. 


PSYCHOANALYSIS    IN    TREATMENT   OF    PSYCHONEUROSES.          303 

He,  however,  further  remarks : 

1 '  I  do  not  think  it  at  all  impossible  that,  with  the  proper  changes 
in  the  procedure,  it  will  be  possible  to  disregard  this  contraindica- 
tion, and  thus  claim  a  psychotherapy  for  the  psychoses. ' ' 

At  least  the  cases  I  have  reported  in  the  foregoing  pages  will 
show  a  broader  application  of  psychotherapy — embracing  the  vari- 
ous methods  of  psychotherapeutic  technic,  including  psychoanal- 
ysis, physical  education,  moral  education,  prophylactic  education, 
suggestion  with  or  without  hypnosis,  instruction  in  diet,  hydro- 
therapy,  exercise,  and  gymnastics — and  will  give  us  a  psycho- 
therapy applicable  to  all  branches  of  medical  practice,  and,  as 
applied  strictly  to  neurological  work,  will  reach  a  much  greater 
variety  of  cases,  as  the  case  reports  herein  presented  will  prove 
beyond  contradiction,  than  the  limited  field  admitted  by  Freud  for 
psychoanalysis. 

Moreover,  we  have  a  psychotherapy  not  limited  to  "class  or 
wealth,"  but,  when  selected  and  applied  to  meet  the  requirements 
of  the  individual  patient,  according  to  his  peculiar  development, 
it  is  applicable  to  the  great  mass  of  sufferers  needing  assistance  by 
the  combined  efforts  of  all  classes  of  medical  practitioners. 

In  the  application  of  psychotherapy,  in  the  broad  sense  indi- 
cated, by  the  various  educational,  dietetic,  hygienic,  and  physio- 
logical methods  embraced,  results  are  accomplished  in  a  shorter 
time,  and  by  the  employment  of  all  such  measures  the  physician  is 
less  liable  to  find  himself  in  a  muddle  of  embarrassing  complica- 
tions, for  his  remedial  agents  are  such  as  to  meet  the  requirements 
of  the  individual  as  a  whole. 

Adolph  Meyer  has  well  said:  "Mind  should  be  looked  upon  as 
a  sufficiently  organized  living  being  in  action,  and  not  a  peculiar 
form  of  mind  stuff.  Mental  activity  is  best  understood  in  its  full 
meaning  as  the  adaptation  and  adjustment  of  the  individual  as  a 
whole,  in  contrast  to  the  simple  activity  of  single  organs,  such  as 
those  of  circulation,  respiration,  digestion,  elimination,  or  simple 
reflex  activity.  It  is  the  act  that  counts;  the  reaction  of  the  per- 
son as  a  whole — not  merely  one  '  thought. '  Psychotherapy  is  regu- 
lation of  action,  and  complete  only  when  action  is  reached.  Habit 
training  is  the  backbone  of  psychotherapy — suggestion  merely  a 


304  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

step  to  the  end.  Action  with  flesh  and  bone  is  the  only  safe  cri- 
terion of  efficient  mental  activity;  and  actions  and  attitude,  and 
their  adaptation,  are  the  issue  in  psychotherapy." 

But,  as  important  as  is  "action  with  flesh  and  bone,"  we  must 
not  forget  that  the  psychic  elements,  either  inherited  or  acquired, 
are  what  determine  the  activities,  actions,  and  attitudes  of  the 
individual  in  action.  Freud  and  Jung  have  shown  with  masterful 
skill  how  the  bisexual  elements  of  father  and  mother  are  mani- 
fested in  the  activities  of  the  offspring,  constituting  the  chief 
psychic  and  physical  determinants  to  the  characteristics  of  the 
individual,  with  as  much  certainty  as  that  the  seeds  of  two  varie- 
ties of  corn,  planted  side  by  side,  will  produce  corn  having  char- 
acteristics not  the  exact  reproduction  of  either  of  the  original 
varieties,  but  presenting  all  the  marked  characteristics  of  the  par- 
ent elements.  Moreover,  those  who  have  studied  the  laws  of  hered- 
ity show  us  how  the  individual  of  today  is  but  a  reproduction  of 
the  psychic  and  physical  characteristics  of  ancestors  eons  and  ages 
remote.  This  we  know  from  the  study  of  the  histories  of  normal 
and  abnormal  persons,  or  from  the  study  of  ourselves  and  others, 
and  the  principle  holds  good  whatever  be  our  especial  character- 
istics. 

If  the  reader  will  pardon  a  personal  reference,  I  can  trace  for 
him  my  own  essential  characteristics,  as  illustrated  in  every  page 
of  this  presentation,  showing  that  all  through  life  I  have  been  my 
mother's  boy  and  my  father's  son,  and  how  the  emotional  factors 
proved  to  be  the  determinants.  On  my  mother's  side  her  pre- 
dominating emotional  manifestation  was  seen  in  her  motherly  at- 
titude toward  the  exslaves  and  the  children  of  exslaves.  For  these 
she  constantly  exhibited  as  much  kindly  interest  and  motherly 
sympathy  as  if  they  were  her  own  children.  In  sickness  or  in 
trouble  of  any  kind  she  took  their  part  with  the  zeal  of  one  whose 
own  heart  had  felt  the  pressure  of  their  tremendous  problems,  and 
they  leaned  upon  her  when  in  need  of  advice  or  material  assistance, 
but  never  imposing  upon  her  generosity,  on  account  of  the  dignity 
of  her  method  of  dealing  with  them.  From  her  I  acquired  my 
passion  for  taking  the  part  of  the  "under  dog"  in  all  of  my  rela- 
tions in  life. 


PSYCHOANALYSIS   IN   TREATMENT   OF   PSYCHONEUROSES.          305 

My  father's  greatest  emotional  manifestation  seemed  to  be  a 
subconscious  recognition  of  his  own  loss  in  the  death  of  his  only 
brother.  He  had  no  recollection  of  his  own  father,  who  died  in 
his  early  infancy ;  so  he  leaned  upon  this  elder  brother,  many  years 
his  senior,  making  him  his  model  of  ideal  manhood.  This  elder 
brother,  in  accordance  with  the  wishes  of  his  mother,  received  a 
splendid  education  at  one  of  the  best  eastern  universities  and  after- 
ward studied  medicine.  Shortly  after  his  graduation  in  medicine 
he  was  thrown  from  his  conveyance  by  an  unruly  horse,  sustaining 
injuries  from  which  he  shortly  died.  On  account  of  his  death  my 
father's  education  was  necessarily  neglected,  and  his  widowed 
mother  practically  reduced  to  poverty.  This  physician  brother 
seemed  to  have  been  my  father's  ideal,  and,  although  my  father 
later  became  one  of  the  most  important  contributors  to  the  cause 
of  scientific  agriculture,  and  though  I  enjoyed  farm  life  as  a  duck 
enjoys  water,  I  felt  impelled,  as  if  by  an  irresistible  force,  to  study 
medicine. 

But  why  should  I,  an  unsophisticated  country  practitioner,  have 
also  felt  impelled,  by  a  force  which  I  was  powerless  to  resist,  to 
give  lectures  on  psychotherapy?  I  must  go  back  to  the  records  of 
Edinburg  University,  and  there  I  find  that  for  one  hundred  con- 
secutive years  my  direct  forefathers  had  held  a  professorship  in 
that  institution.  Hence  we  see  both  hereditary  and  environing 
determinants  in  their  respective  relations  to  individuality.  But 
this  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  formation  of  a  neurosis,  might  be 
said  of  the  defenders  of  Freud's  theory.  Then  I  will  make  a  per- 
sonal illustration  of  the  factors  contributing  to  the  development  of 
a  pronounced  neurosis,  and  make  my  deductions  from  that  illustra- 
tion. 

The  association  method  of  Professor  Carl  G.  Jung,  of  Zurich, 
which  I  will  describe  presently,  has  demonstrated  beyond  question 
that  the  writer  has  a  pronounced  psychological  "sore  spot."  In 
other  words,  according  to  this  reliable  and  profoundly  instructive 
diagnostic  test  method,  I  am  a  psychoneurotic.  Of  this  I  was  glad 
to  learn,  for  in  no  other  way  could  I  have  been  so  thoroughly  con- 
vinced of  the  reliability  of  the  method  as  a  means  of  obtaining  the 
accurate  history  of  a  patient,  detecting  the  "psychic  traumas" 


306  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

resulting  from  painful  experiences  of  his  past  history,  and  definitely 
locating  the  ideas  producing  the  neurosis. 

One  hundred  "stimulus  words"  have  been  formulated  by  Pro- 
fessor Jung  after  many  years'  experience.  He  tells  us  that  the 
words  are  chosen  and  partially  arranged  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
strike  easily  almost  all  complexes  of  practical  occurrence.  In  this 
formulary  which  he  has  constructed  there  is  a  regular  mixing  of 
the  grammatical  qualities  of  words,  which  has  its  definite  reasons. 
In  describing  his  method,  Professor  Jung  says :  * 

"Before  the  experiment  begins,  the  test  person  receives  the  fol- 
lowing instruction:  'Answer  as  quickly  as  possible  the  first  word 
that  occurs  to  your  mind.'  This  instruction  is  so  simple  that  it 
can  be  easily  followed  by  anybody.  The  work  itself,  moreover,  ap- 
pears extremely  easy,  so  that  it  might  be  expected  that  any  one 
could  accomplish  it  with  greatest  facility  and  promptitude.  But 
contrary  to  expectation,  the  behavior  is  quite  different.  The  first 
thing  that  strikes  us  is  the  fact  that  many  test  persons  show  a 
marked  prolongation  of  the  reaction  time.  This  would  make  us 
think  at  first  of  intellectual  difficulties — wrongly,  however,  as  we 
are  often  dealing  with  very  intelligent  persons  of  fluent  speech. 
The  explanation  lies  rather  in  the  emotions.  In  order  to  under- 
stand the  matter  comprehensively,  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  the 
association  experiments  can  not  deal  with  a  separated  psychic  func- 
tion, for  any  psychic  occurrence  is  never  a  thing  in  itself,  but  is 
always  the  resultant  of  the  entire  psychological  past.  The  associa- 
tion experiment,  too,  is  not  merely  a  method  for  the  reproduction  of 
separated  word  couplets,  but  it  is  a  kind  of  pastime — a  conversa- 
tion between  experimenter  and  test  person.  In  a  certain  sense  it  is 
even  still  more  than  that.  Words  are  really  something  like  con- 
densed actions,  situations,  and  things.  When  I  present  a  word  to 
the  test  person  which  denotes  an  action,  it  is  the  same  as  if  I  should 
present  to  him  the  action  itself,  and  ask  him,  'How  do  you  behave 
toward  it  ?  What  do  you  think  of  it  ?  What  do  you  do  in  this  sit- 
uation?' If  I  were  a  magician,  I  should  cause  the  situation  cor- 
responding to  the  stimulus  word  to  appear  in  reality,  and,  placing 

1  Lectures  delivered  by  Carl  G.  Jung  at  the  celebration  of  the  twentieth  anniversary 
of  Clarke    University. — Translation  by  Brill. 


PSYCHOANALYSIS   IN    TREATMENT   OF   PSYCHONEUROSES.          307 

the  test  person  in  the  midst,  I  should  then  study  his  manner  of  reac- 
tion. The  result  of  my  stimulus  words  would  undoubtedly  ap- 
proach infinitely  nearer  perfection.  But,  as  we  are  not  magicians, 
we  must  be  contented  with  linguistic  substitutes ;  at  the  same  time 
we  must  not  forget  that  the  stimulus  word,  as  a  rule,  will  always 
conjure  up  its  corresponding  situation.  It  all  depends  on  how  the 
test  person  reacts  to  this  situation.  The  situation  '  bride '  or  '  bride- 
groom' will  not  evoke  a  simple  reaction  in  a  young  lady,  but  the 
reaction  will  be  deeply  influenced  by  the  provoked  strong  feeling 
tones — the  more  so  if  the  experimenter  be  a  man.  It  thus  happens 
that  the  test  person  is  often  unable  to  react  quickly  and  smoothly  to 
all  stimulus  words.  In  reality,  too,  there  are  certain  stimulus  words 
which  denote  actions,  situations,  or  things,  about  which  the  test  per- 
son can  not  think  quickly  and  surely,  and  this  fact  is  shown  in  the 
association  experiments." 

In  having  my  reaction  test  recorded  by  a  physician  well  quali- 
fied to  take  it,  whereas  my  average  reaction  time  to  each  of  one 
hundred  words  was  one  and  eight-tenths  seconds,  upon  the  stimulus 
word  "to  pray,"  to  which  my  answer  was  "religion"  (the  answer 
indicating  the  reaction)  and  my  reproduction  "delightful,"  my 
reaction  time  was  five  and  four-tenths  seconds. 

My  impediment  in  reacting  to  the  stimulus  word,  "to  pray,"  indi- 
cated that  my  adaptation  to  the  stimulus  word  was  disturbed. 
Hence,  as  Jung  tells  us,  "the  stimulus  words  are  therefore  a  part  of 
reality  acting  upon  us;  indeed,  a  person  who  shows  such  disturb- 
ances to  the  stimulus  words  is  in  a  certain  sense  really,  but  imper- 
fectly, adapted  to  reality.  Disease  is  an  imperfect  adaptation; 
hence  in  this  case  we  are  dealing  with  something  morbid  in  the 
psyche — with  something  \vhich  is  either  temporary  or  persistently 
pathological ;  that  is,  we  are  dealing  with  a  psychoneurosis — with  a 
functional  disturbance  of  the  mind.  This  rule,  as  we  shall  see 
later,  is  not  without  its  exceptions." 

The  latter  half  of  the  last  sentence  in  the  above  quotation  allows 
me,  perhaps,  to  believe  that  I  am  one  of  the  exceptions.  Be  that  as 
it  may,  the  history  of  that  complex  and  the  painful  sensations 
caused  by  its  functionating,  after  I  was  obliged  to  follow  the  dic- 
tates of  my  own  reasoning  faculties  and  reject  the  idea  of  an  an- 


308  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

thropomorphic  deity,  and  my  early  religious  convictions  based  upon 
the  conception,  completely  upset  my  adaptation  to  my  environment 
after  I  had  for  ten  years  been  engaged  in  the  general  practice  of 
medicine. 

It  may  be  of  interest  to  the  reader  to  know  that  I  am  not  con- 
sciously aware  of  this  psychological  "sore  spot"  until  all  of  the 
chapters  of  this  book,  except  the  present,  had  been  written.  One  can 
easily  see  how  the  emotional  element,  suppressed  and  unconscious, 
fairly,  glistens  from  every  page,  especially  where  I  am  fighting 
against  religious  teachings  based  upon  superstition  and  ignorance, 
and  pleading  for  a  religious  conception  in  accord  with  the  teachings 
of  modern  science. 

The  association  method  of  Carl  G.  Jung,  as  an  incomparable  diag- 
nostic psychotherapeutic  agency,  in  enabling  one  to  elicit  the  his- 
tory of  the  patient  without  his  knowledge,  and  in  giving  us  an  in- 
sight into  his  most  secretly  guarded  psychic  processes,  be  these 
conscious  or  dissociated,  without  the  prolonged  digging  into  the 
•sexual  incidents  of  the  patient's  life,  as  employed  by  Freud,  can  be 
fully  appreciated  only  by  one  having  made  employment  of  this 
method  of  diagnostic  technic.  By  it  we  are  enabled  to  interrogate 
the  patient  without  his  consent,  frequently  enabling  the  physician 
to  detect  the  psychogenetic  factors  contributing  to  the  development 
of  a  neurosis  as  could  be  obtained  in  no  other  manner. 

One  illustration  will  suffice:  The  patient  was  a  young  man  of 
thirty  years  of  age,  having  a  wife  and  five  children.  He  came  to 
me  to  be  treated  for  impotency,  and  no  pathological  cause,  from  a 
physical  examination,  could  be  ascertained  to  account  for  his  impo- 
tency. The  history  elicited  by  questioning  him  gave  no  clue  to  the 
etiology  of  his  psychoneurotic  manifestations.  He  assured  me  that  he 
was  devoted  to  his  wife ;  that  they  were  congenial  in  every  respect ; 
that  no  foreign  goddess  figured  in  the  etiology  of  his  condition ; 
that  he  had  been  otherwise  well  capacitated  physically  until  a  few 
weeks  previous  to  consulting  me,  at  which  time  he  began  to  suffer 
from  insomnia,  indigestion,  depression,  and  other  nervous  symptoms. 
His  conduct,  however,  excited  my  apprehensions,  and  on  one  occa- 
sion I  interrogated  him  unconsciously  by  the  employment  of  the 
association  method  of  Jung.  This  was  commenced  by  taking  in  my 


PSYCHOANALYSIS   IN    TREATMENT   OP   PSYCHONEUROSES.          309 

hand  a  list  of  one  hundred  words  and  beginning  by  asking  him  this 
question : 

"If  I  should  say  stork,  of  what  would  you  be  reminded?" 

"Baby,"  was  his  reply. 

' '  Very  well ;  in  the  same  way  repeat  the  first  word  that  comes  into 
your  mind  as  I  read  to  you  this  list  of  words." 

Let  me  say  that  I  have  adopted  a  method  of  diagramming  the  re- 
action time  of  each  test  person  instead  of  recording  the  reaction 
time  with  a  stop  watch.  After  repeating  the  stimulus  word,  I  begin 
making  a  number  of  straight  perpendicular  lines  about  like  the 
figure  "  1 "  as  it  appears  when  written  with  a  lead  pencil,  making 
probably  three  to  each  second.  In  looking  over  my  test  sheets  I 
can  recognize  at  a  glance  the  "complex  indicators"  by  the  long  row 
of  marks  opposite  the  stimulus  words.  The  answers  to  the  stimulus 
words — the  reaction  words — are  also  recorded.  After  going  over 
the  list  once,  the  patient  is  held  in  waiting  for  ten  minutes  by  divert- 
ing his  attention  to  some  other  subject,  and  he  is  then  requested  to 
see  if  he  can  repeat  his  answers  to  the  stimulus  words.  The  repro- 
duction is  indicated  by  a  cross  mark,  and,  if  the  reproduction  words 
in  going  over  the  second  time  are  not  identical  with  the  first  reac- 
tion words,  they  are  likewise  recorded,  and  these  are  frequently 
very  significant  "complex  indicators,"  showing  impeded  adaptation 
in  the  test  person  to  the  group  of  ideas  aroused  by  the  stimulus 
words.  Further  explanation  of  certain  acts  manifested  by  the  test 
person — such  as  a  failure  to  react  to  the  stimulus  word,  interroga- 
tions, repetitions,  etc. — will  not  be  necessary  unless  I  were  going  into 
the  minute  technic  of  employing  Jung's  association  method,  but 
these  are  not  without  significance  as  probable  complex  indicators. 
They  always  indicate  something  very  important  for  the  individual 
psychology  of  the  test  person. 

Now,  to  return  to  my  patient  for  the  significance  of  the  record 
diagrammed  as  described.  A  glance  over  the  test  sheet  warranted 
me  in  saying : 

"I  am  so  very  sorry  to  find  that  you  are  laboring  under  such  a 
suppressed  feeling  of  shame  and  humiliation;  you  are  carrying  a 
heavy  burden  which  yon  are  forcing  yourself  to  conceal ;  it  con- 
cerns some  one  dear  to  you ;  a  separation  has  been  seriously  con- 


310  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

sidered;  it  concerns  your  most  intimate  family  relations;  the  wel- 
fare of  your  children  is  at  stake,;  you  have  contemplated  beating 
some  one;  your  pride  has  been  wounded,  and  you  are  very  much 
depressed  by  this  unfortunate  state  of  affairs.  I  now  see  the  bear- 
ing of  this  misfortune  upon  your  symptoms.  Do  as  you  please 
about  telling  me  the  details  of  what  is  here  plainly  indicated,  but, 
if  you  care  to  confide  in  me,  I  shall  be  more  than  glad  to  render 
whatever  assistance  I  possibly  can  to  help  you  adapt  yourself  to 
this  situation." 

He  arose  from  his  chair,  put  on  his  coat  and  was  in  the  act  of 
going  from  my  office,  but  again  removed  his  coat  and  gave  me  the 
facts,  showing  that  I  had  obtained  a  true  history  of  this  recent 
psychic  trauma.  The  unbosoming  or  liberation  of  the  pent-up  feel- 
ings which  he  had  borne  alone  had  the  effect  to  bring  about  a  rapid 
amelioration  of  his  neurotic  symptoms,  but  the  earnest  talk  given 
him,  in  which  I  endeavored  to  show  him  how  he  could  be  as  a 
"savior"  to  the  life  and  happiness  of  the  erring  one,  and  save  his 
children  from  a  hurtful  trauma  from  which  they  would  never  com- 
pletely recover,  as  well  as  the  weekly  conversations  afterward,  must 
not  be  overlooked,  for  these  combined  efforts  constituted  the  psycho- 
therapeutic  management  of  the  case  in  question. 

Jung  tells  us  that  the  larger  number  of  neurotics  show  a  tendency 
to  cover  up  their  intimate  affairs  in  impenetrable  darkness,  even 
from  the  doctor,  so  that  the  doctor  finds  it  very  difficult  to  form  a 
proper  picture  of  the  patient's  psychology.  In  all  such  cases  the 
association  experiment  is  indispensable. 

Jung  further  tells  us  that  one  must  get  rid  of  the  idea  that  edu- 
cated and  intelligent  test  persons  are  able  to  see  and  admit  their 
own  complexes.  Every  human  mind  contains  much  that  is  unac- 
knowledged, and  hence  unconscious  as  such,  and  no  one  can  boast 
that  he  stands  completely  above  his  complexes.  Those  who  persist 
in  maintaining  it  do  not  see  the  spectacles  which  they  wear  on  their 
noses. 

The  study  of  psychoanalysis — the  field  of  investigation — is  only 
begun,  and  is  indispensable  for  the  intelligent  understanding  of 
neurotic  disease.  It  helps  us  to  understand  ourselves  and  others 
with  whom  we  associate  in  every  department  of  life,  and  enables 


PSYCHOANALYSIS   IN    TREATMENT   OP   PSYCHONEUROSES.          311 

one  to  be  more  tolerant  of  the  frailties  and  weaknesses  of  human 
nature.  Especially  does  it  better  equip  us  to  help  the  psychic  crip- 
ples to  help  themselves,  which  is  the  ultimate  aim  of  every  branch  of 
psychotherapy.  Moreover,  it  gives  us  a  clearer  insight  into  the  un- 
derstanding of  child  life,  and  will  better  enable  us  to  begin  today  a 
method  of  preventing  many  of  the  psychoneuroses  and  psychoses  of 
a  hundred  and  a  thousand  years  hence.  But  be  it  understood  that 
by  indorsing  the  great  value  of  "psychoanalysis"  I  do  not  mean 
sexual  psychoanalysis,  as  I  have  endeavored  to  distinctly  emphasize 
throughout  this  entire  article. 

Dream  analysis  promises  to  be  of  some  value  as  a  psychoanalytic 
method  of  dealing  directly  with  the  subconscious  processes,  as  the 
investigations  of  Prince,  Sidis,  Freud,  and  others  have  conclusively 
demonstrated.  The  study  of  the  various  theories  presented  by  these 
men  teaches  us  that  dreams  are  not  something  that  happen  in  a 
haphazard,  meaningless  manner,  but  that  they  appear  as  the  logical 
sequence  of  impressions,  ideas,  and  experiences  conserved  by  the 
neurons  as  the  result  of  ordinary  every-day  conduct. 

The  bungling,  apparently  meaningless  acts  of  neurotics,  and  nor- 
mal men  and  women  as  well,  deserve  the  rank  of  symptoms,  and 
their  observations,  like  those  of  dreams,  can  lead  to  the  discovery 
of  hidden  complexes  of  the  psychic  life.  Thus  the  psychoanalyst 
is  distinguished  by  an  especially  strong  belief  in  the  determination 
of  the  psychic  life.  "For  him,"  says  Freud,  "there  is  in  the  ex- 
pressions of  the  psyche  nothing  trifling,  nothing  arbitrary  and 
lawless.  He  expects  everywhere  a  widespread  motivation,  where 
customarily  such  claims  are  not  made;  more  than  that,  he  is  even 
prepared  to  find  a  manifold  motivation  of  these  psychic  expressions, 
while  our  supposedly  inborn  causal  need  is  satisfied  with  a  single 
psychic  cause. ' '  The  idea  embraced  in  this  quotation  is  in  perfect 
accord  with  the  entire  presentation  of  my  work  in  the  present  and 
previous  editions  of  this  book,  as  the  reading  of  the  following  chap- 
ters will  conclusively  demonstrate. 

How  to  introduce  the  pathogenic  psychic  material  into  conscious- 
ness, and  so  do  away  with  the  suffering  brought  on  by  the  creation 
of  licensed  symptoms — by  the  study  of  the  eruptive  ideas  called  up 
by  free  association,  by  Jung's  association  diagnostic  experiments, 


312  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

the  patient's  dreams,  and  his  bungled  and  symptomatic  acts,  and 
adding  to  these  the  value  of  other  phenomena  which  emerge  in  the 
study  of  the  individual  patient — is  the  object,  aim,  and  purpose  of 
psychoanalysis. 

That  there  is  much  in  Freud's  contributions  to  the  psychology  of 
dreams  which  is  of  great  value,  I  am  more  than  glad  to  acknowl- 
edge. But  in  so  far  as  he  attributes  every  dream  to  being  the 
"disguised  fulfillment  of  a  repressed  wish,"  and  attempts  to  trace 
that  "wish,"  in  its  ultimate  analysis,  to  signify  an  ungratified 
sexual  desire,  I  prefer  not  to  dignify  such  theories  by  further  quo- 
tations. Those  who  are  suggestible  enough  to  be  hypnotized  into 
believing  such  rot  are  welcome  to  their  delusion,  so  far  as  I  am 
concerned.  The  pity  is  that  the  unfortunate,  suggestible,  hyster- 
ical patient  must  be  brought  under  the  dominating  power  of  such 
suggestions  as  a  pretense  to  cure  her  unpleasant  psychoneurotic 
manifestations. 

I  have  employed  ' '  dream  analysis "  as  a  form  of  suggestive  treat- 
ment with  highly  satisfactory  results.  In  all  such  cases  I  could 
trace  the  dreams  to  be  the  natural  sequence  of  the  previous  proc- 
esses of  experience,  which  had  been  conserved  by  the  nervous  system 
and  which  were  reproduced  in  the  sleep  consciousness.  They  were 
caused  by  suggestion,  and  were  relieved  by  suggestion,  in  conformity 
with  the  laws  governing  normal  and  abnormal  psychic  processes. 

An  hysterical  patient,  who  had  a  strong  revulsion  for  her  husband, 
which  I  discovered  by  Jung's  association  method,  night  after  night 
awoke  frightened  and  nervous  because  of  a  dream  that  a  snake  was 
in  her  room.  I  could  get  no  clue  to  the  meaning  of  this  dream,  in 
which  the  snake  constantly  figured,  until  she  dreamed  that  the' 
snake  was  at  her  dining  table  and  she  awoke  in  the  act  of  snatching- 
her  child  away  from  the  reptile,  lest  the  child  should  be  harmed. 
The  meaning  was  then  clear  to  me.  Her  husband  slept  in  a  sepa- 
rate bed  in  the  same  room,  and  she  had  as  much  revulsion  for  the 
demonstration  of  his  affections  as  if  he  were  a  snake.  In  her  con- 
scious thoughts  she  expressed  her  revulsion,  probably,  in  this  for- 
mula :  "I  would  as  lief  have  a  snake  touch  me  as  to  have  my 
husband  touch  me."  In  her  dream  consciousness  she  was  sleeping 
in  the  room  with  a  snake,  and  became  afraid  that  it  would  harm 


PSYCHOANALYSIS   IN    TREATMENT   OF   PSYCHONEUEOSES.          313 

her,  and,  again,  she  was  eating  at  a  table  where  a  snake  was  beside 
her  child,  and  she  feared  that  the  snake  would  bite  it.  My  expla- 
nation of  the  meaning  of  her  dream  removed  the  vision  of  the  snake 
from  her  home  ever  afterward,  and  she  was  no  more  troubled  by 
snake  dreams.  But  the  procedure  did  not  get  rid  of  her  husband, 
who  needed  psychic  treatment  as  well  as  his  wife,  which  he  refused 
to  have  administered.  So,  nothing  was  left  but  for  the  patient  to 
transfer  the  feeling  of  unhappiness  resulting  from  this  inharmonious 
domestic  situation  into  some  other  psychic  or  physical  manifesta- 
tion as  a  means  of  expressing  her  lack  of  adaptation  to  her  en- 
vironment. 

Another  patient,  a  cultured  and  refined  young  woman  of  twenty- 
two  years  of  age,  dreamed  frequently  that  she  was  in  the  act  of 
parturition,  suffering  all  the  pain  of  a  woman  in  the  child-bearing 
act.  By  the  aid  of  light  hypnosis,  a  condition  identical  with  ' '  hyp- 
noidization"  a  la  Sidis,  I  assisted  her  in  recalling  to  memory  an 
incident  in  which  she,  when  a  small  child,  overheard  a  conversation 
relating  to  the  pain  and  suffering  of  a  woman  who  had  given  birth 
to  a  baby.  The  older  persons  engaged  in  the  conversation  thought 
she  was  asleep,  but  she  heard  their  conversation,  received  the  im- 
pressions, or  suggestions,  and  these  expressed  themselves  in  the 
dream  consciousness  many  years  later,  though  she  had  apparently 
forgotten  everything  about  the  original  experience,  which  was  re- 
sponsible for  this  psychic  manifestation  many  years  later  in  the 
dream  consciousness.  Of  course  the  Freudians  will  see  in  this  the 
fulfillment  of  a  repressed  wish.  This  patient  shortly  afterward 
found  a  normal  outlet  for  her  emotional  energy  in  a  useful,  helpful 
occupation ;  she  became  enthusiastic  in  her  work  and  has  made  of 
it  a  great  success.  Every  psychoneurosis  will  be  banished  if  the 
early  home  training  of  the  patient  has  been  such  as  to  equip  him 
for  a  place  of  real  service  in  the  world,  and  the  individual  can  be 
induced  to  find  that  place  and  fill  it  to  the  best  of  his  ability.  But 
he  must  have  a  congenial  occupation.  It  must  be  a  work  in  keep- 
ing with  the  mental  and  physical  capacities  of  the  individual,  and 
one  in  which  his  mental  and  physical  powers  can  find  their  highest 
expression.  Such  is  the  only  safe  goal  to  health  and  happiness. 

In  another  patient  a  severe  migraine  of  over  ten  years'  standing 


314  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

was  traced  by  the  aid  of  hypnosis  to  a  severe  fright  by  the  effort 
of  her  husband  to  kill  a  cat  which  had  been  confined  in  a  cellar. 
The  crying  of  the  cat  suddenly  aroused  the  patient  from  her  sleep 
at  a  time  when  she  was  ill,  producing  a  severe  fright,  with  nervous- 
ness, headache,  tremors,  and  other  manifestations.  Since  the  orig- 
inal experience  she  occasionally  dreamed  of  cats,  always  waking 
with  a  severe  headache  and  all  the  other  feeling  tones  accompanying 
the  original  experience.  The  discovery  of  this  submerged  func- 
tionating complex,  with  all  the  painful  sensations  that  it  had  so 
faithfully  conserved,  enabled  me  to  effect  a  cure  of  the  resulting 
symptoms. 

Friedlander,  in  quoting  from  Jung,  in  which  he  sums  up  the  value 
of  his  association  methods,  says : x 

(1.)  "The  complex  appearing  in  the  associations  of  the  psycho- 
genetic  neurosis  is  the  cause  of  the  disease  (a  disposition  is  pre- 
supposed). Every  psychogenetic  neurosis  contains  a  complex 
which  differs  from  the  normal  complex  in  that  it  has  an  extraor- 
dinary emotional  tone,  and  can  thus  bring  the  entire  personality 
under  its  influence. ' ' 

(2.)  "Association  tests  can,  therefore,  be  of  great  help  in  un- 
covering the  pathogenic  complex,  and  also  serve  as  a  means  of  facil- 
itating and  shortening  Freud 's  psychoanalytic  method. ' ' 

(3.)  "Association  tests  enable  us  to  obtain  experimentally  an  in- 
sight into  the  psychologic  structure  of  the  neurotic  symptoms. 
Hysterical  and  psychic  symptoms  are  nothing  but  symbolic  repre- 
sentations of  the  pathogenic  complexes. ' ' 

Further  quoting  from  Jung,  Friedlander  says:  "The  complex 
uncovered  by  the  association  method  is  the  cause  of  the  dreams  and 
of  the  hysterical  symptoms.  The  disturbances  which  the  complex 
causes  in  association  experiments  are  nothing  else  than  resistances 
met  in  Freud's  psychoanalytic  method. 

"The  mechanism  of  repression  is  the  same  in  the  association  ex- 
periments as  it  is  in  the  dream  and  in  the  hysterical  symptoms. 

"In  hysteria  the  complex  possesses  an  abnormal  stability,  and 
tends  to  an  independent  existence.  It  progressively  diminishes  the 

1  Hysteria  and  Modern  Psychoanalysis,  by  Dr.  A.  Friedlander,  Frankfort,  Germany. — 
Journal  of  Abnormal  Psychology,  Boston,  February-March,  1911. 


PSYCHOANALYSIS   IN    TREATMENT   OP   PSYCHONEUROSES.          315 

power  of  the  ego  complexes  and  substitutes  itself  in  their  place.  A 
new  diseased  personality  is  thus  gradually  formed,  whose  inclina- 
tions, judgments,  and  decisions  are  directed  by  the  diseased  will. 
The  ego  is  thus  destroyed  by  the  new  personality,  and  is  forced  to 
become  a  secondary  complex. 

"The  effective  treatment  must,  therefore,  aim  to  strengthen  the 
normal  self,  to  induce  new  complexes  which  should  free  the  per- 
sonality from  the  mastery  of  the  disease  complex. ' ' 

Commenting  upon  these  deductions  of  Jung,  Friedlander  says: 
"These  conclusions  are  indeed  very  interesting.  But  the  last  sen- 
tence contains  what  every  psychotherapeutist  has  been  attempting 
to  do  without  perhaps  such  fundamental  psychological  considera- 
tions. To  strengthen  the  '  diseased  personality, '  to  induce  new  aims 
in  the  diseased  thought,  to  train  the  patient  in  self-control,  to  sup- 
press the  emotions,  and  to  train  the  patient  in  diverting  work,  all 
these  were  and  still  are  the  effective  instruments  in  the  treatment 
of  hysteria  and  neuroses  in  general.  And  that  which  Jung  calls 
the  disease  complex  is  still  termed  by  the  'old  school'  effective  dis- 
turbances and  autosuggestions." 

Here  I  rest  my  argument.  I  leave  it  to  the  sane  judgment  of 
any  well-known  psychotherapist — such  as  Prince,  Sidis,  Meyer, 
Miinsterberg,  or  others — to  decide  if  the  results  accomplished  by 
this  "scientific  psychotherapy,"  called  psychoanalytic,  are  not  ac- 
complished in  precisely  the  same  manner  and  by  the  same  effective 
mental  mechanism — employing  the  same  physiological  machinery — 
as  are  the  results  accomplished  by  the  simpler  methods  which  I 
have  elsewhere  elucidated  in  this  book,  and  which  I  have  taught 
and  demonstrated  for  the  past  twelve  years. 

The  psychoanalytic  method,  as  taught  by  Freud,  is  tedious  and 
uncertain.  The  hereditary  abnormalities  have  a  long  pedigree,  and 
the  experiences  of  childhood  are  too  remote  to  uncover,  with  the 
least  possible  advantage  to  the  patient,  or  for  the  adult  or  mature 
judgment  to  correct.  Kecent  gross  pathological  psychogenetic  com- 
plexes may,  however,  be  broken  up,  altered,  modified,  changed,  and 
rendered  more  benign. 

The  directing  of  the  emotional  energies  into  normal  channels 
must  ever  predominate  in  psychotherapeutics,  whatever  be  the 


316  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

technic  or  the  method  employed.  A  new  point  of  view,  a  new  habit 
formed,  a  new  conviction  instilled  into  the  conscious  personality, 
will  change  an  individual  as  nothing  else  can  do,  without  the  humil- 
iating, tedious,  expensive  efforts  at  delving  into  the  sexual  past  as 
taught  by  Freud.  However  entertaining  his  theories  may  appear, 
and  I  admit  that  they  are  as  fascinating  as  some  of  the  erotic  pro- 
ductions of  fiction  writers,  we  can  never  make  an  individual  over. 
He  is  the  product  of  the  hereditary  and  environing  determinants, 
which  are  as  certain  in  their  results  as  the  law  of  gravitation. 
Then,  what  can  we  do?  We  can  take  our  patients  as  they  are, 
and  help  each  to  make  the  best  of  his  or  her  potentialities,  be  they 
much  or  little,  weak  or  strong. 

In  referring  to  Freud's  method  of  holding  the  attention  of  the 
hysterical  patient  to  the  sexual  incidents  of  infancy  and  early  child- 
hood, by  the  employment  of  the  methods  described  by  him,  in  sup- 
port of  his  extreme  sexual  theories,  Friedlander  remarks:  "At 
any  rate,  I  can  conceive  of  parents  who  would  see  their  daughter 
hysterical  all  her  life  rather  than  submit  her  to  a  sexual  psycho- 
analysis lasting  for  years." 

As  a  preparatory  step  to  the  beginning  of  the  study  of  psycho- 
analysis, I  most  earnestly  commend  the  article  on  "Hysteria  and 
Modern  Psychoanalysis ' '  by  Dr.  A.  Friedlander,  of  Frankfort,  Ger- 
many, published  in  the  Journal  of  Abnormal  Psychology,  Boston, 
February-March,  1911.  In  this  article  Friedlander  remarks: 

"The  retrospect  we  have  taken  is  not  consoling — perhaps  a  view 
of  the  future  is  more  promising.  Scientific  strife  stands  for  prog- 
ress, provided  it  does  not  turn  into  personal  quarrels.  Freud  and 
his  followers  should  see  if  they  could  not  get  equally  satisfactory 
results  without  their  'sexual  investigations.'  We,  the  opponents, 
gladly  acknowledge  their  psychological  work  helping  us  to  under- 
stand the  neuroses. 

"But  it  must  be  remembered  that,  with  all  their  analysis,  they 
have  not  succeeded  in  throwing  any  more  light  as  to  the  real  nature 
of  hysteria.  Psychoanalysis  in  itself  is  indispensable  to  the  neurolo- 
gist and  psychiatrist.  Sexual  psychoanalysis,  on  the  other  hand, 
appears  to  many  of  us  as  objectionable  and  superfluous.  We  all 
recognize  the  importance  of  sexuality  in  the  normal  human  life  as 


PSYCHOANALYSIS   IN    TREATMENT   OF   PSYCHONEUROSES.          317 

well  as  in  disease;  but,  with  the  exception  of  rare  cases,  treatment 
should  be  directed  to  the  suppression  of  the  sexual  representations 
and  not  to  bring  them  to  the  surface.  Education  of  youth  relative 
to  sexual  matters  is  indeed  desirable,  but  the  discussion  of  all  pos- 
sible perversions  is  objectionable. 

' '  I  may  conclude  with  the  hope  that  the  future  is  not  far  distant 
when  no  undue  emphasis  will  be  given  the  sexual  factor,  and  when 
we  will  be  able  to  come  to  an  understanding  without  doing  violence 
to  the  facts ;  and  that  not  only  should  we  learn  from  Freud,  Jung, 
and  Steckel,  but  that  the  latter  should  give  earnest,  critical  consid- 
eration to  the  views  of  their  opponents." 

At  least  in  America  the  sane  trustworthy  judgment  of  Prince  and 
Sidis  should  have  the  earnest  consideration  of  every  truth-seeking 
investigator  of  psychoanalysis  in  the  treatment  of  the  psychoneu- 
roses  before  risking  his  chances  of  getting  lost  in  the  fascinating 
mirage  set  forth  by  Freud. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 
TRAINING  THE  SUBCONSCIOUS  SELF. 

A  Rational  Basis  for  Autosuggestion. — Every  sense  impression, 
or  perception,  or  idea  that  has  come  within  our  individual  experi- 
ence through  education  or  environment  has  left  its  impress  upon 
the  brain  cells.  These  brain  cells,  stimulated  by  ideas  of  a  similar 
character,  reproduce  the  memory  pictures  gathered  by  experience, 
and  this  process  is  what  is  called  thinking.  Thinking,  in  logical 
sequence,  constitutes  reasoning.  Thinking  gives  rise  to  mental 
processes,  or  states  of  mind,  or  conditions  of  consciousness  that  are 
constantly  changing,  so  that  the  conscious  mind  or  ego  of  one  mo- 
ment is  not  that  of  the  next. 

So  interrelated  are  our  psychical  and  physical  processes  that 
much  has  been  learned  of  our  subconscious  psychic  activities  by 
observing  the  influence  of  the  mind  over  the  body. 

The  subconscious  self  corresponds  to  all  mental  and  physical 
processes  which  lie  beneath  the  stream  of  consciousness.  We 
often  flatter  ourselves  by  believing  that  we  control  our  thoughts 
when,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  thinking  is  but  a  reflex  of  the  sense  im- 
pressions that  have  been  made  upon  our  cerebral  cells  by  all  that 
has  gone  to  make  up  our  experience  in  life.  Yet,  education,  travel, 
association  with  people,  and  all  other  like  experiences,  benefit  us 
only  as  we  react  to  them. 

Every  impression  or  idea  that  is  made  upon  the  conscious  mind 
of  the  individual  throughout  his  entire  life  has  been  conserved  by 
the  neurons,  and  is  one  of  the  factors  that,  collectively,  constitute 
the  training  of  the  subconscious  self.  The  result  of  this  training 
constitutes  our  assets,  as  represented  by  body,  mind,  and  character. 

Our  ability  to  react  upon  and  be  benefited  by  the  experiences  of 
life  is  dependent  upon  an  inherited  quality  of  brain  plasm  on  the 
one  hand  and  education  on  the  other.  We  can  be  benefited  by 

318 


TRAINING   THE   SUBCONSCIOUS   SELF.  319 

the  experiences  that  come  into  our  lives  only  as  we  are  prepared 
by  knowledge  gained  from  previous  experiences. 

That  which  influences  us  most  is  what  most  persistently  holds 
our  interested  attention.  The  kind  of  thought  or  line  of  endeavor 
that  most  receives  our  purposeful  attention,  sustained  by  reason, 
will,  and  determination,  so  reacts  upon  our  bodies  and  minds  that 
we  unconsciously  become  molded  by  that  particular  kind  of  work. 

The  mind,  like  the  body,  becomes  strengthened  or  weakened  by 
mental  and  physical  action.  The  blacksmith,  who  uses  a  sledge 
hammer,  day  by  day  develops  a  muscle  of  steel,  while  the  book- 
keeper, who  lifts  no  more  ponderous  weight  than  the  leaves  of  his 
ledger  from  week  to  week,  has  muscles  that  have  become  atrophied 
and  shriveled.  The  man  of  genius  is  distinguished  from  other  men 
only  by  his  exceptional  power  of  attention  to  one  given  subject. 
On  any  line  of  work  in  all  professions  the  individual  who  becomes 
most  proficient  is  he  who  most  persistently  gives  attention  to  his 
specialty. 

It  has  been  well  said  that  the  mind  set  habitually  and  strongly 
in  any  one  given  direction  loses  the  power  to  think  upon  any  other 
line.  The  Christian  scientist,  who  ignores  the  material  aspect  of 
disease,  and  the  physician  who  does  not  appreciate  the  psychical, 
are  good  illustrations  of  the  above  statement.  The  particular  line 
of  thought  to  which  we  constantly  give  our  attention  and  by  which 
we  habitually  act  makes  us  what  we  are. 

To  be  strong,  capable,  and  free  is  the  ideal  that  every  individual 
should  strive  to  attain,  but  strength  in  mind  and  character  can 
not  be  attained  by  neglect  of  the  body,  for  the  interdependence 
of  mind  and  body  is  such  that  the  highest  development  of  the  one 
quality  depends  upon  the  other  for  its  support. 

Use  your  faculties  and  live,  grow,  and  develop  is  a  decree  of 
nature  from  which  there  can  be  no  escaping.  Some  day,  sooner 
or  later,  each  individual  awakens  to  the  realization  that  his  life 
is  a  fight  between  himself  and  the  entire  world.  We  are  so  related 
to  each  other,  however,  that  the  duty  of  the  individual  and  his 
dependence  upon  other  individuals  and  their  dependence  and  re- 
lation to  the  great  whole  must  never  be  left  out  of  consideration. 
Yet,  the  individual  must  stand  upon  his  own  feet,  see  the  world 


320  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

with  his  own  eyes,  do  things  with  his  own  hands,  and  interpret  the 
problems  of  life  with  his  own  intellect. 

To  be  prepared  for  this  conflict,  this  contest — this  body,  mind, 
and  character  tryst — is  the  problem  of  training  the  subconscious 
self.  Life  itself  is  the  greatest  incentive  for  living,  and  to  attain 
the  highest  development  and  expression  of  the  subconscious  self 
renders  the  individual  capable  of  enjoying  life,  not  only  for  his 
or  her  own  sake,  but  because  to  him  or  her  comes  a  double  pleasure 
of  being  better  equipped  to  help  make  life  more  worth  while  to 
others. 

Since  we  are  endowed  with  a  little,  infmitesimally  small  portion 
of  the  universal  life,  wisdom,  intelligence,  and  force  that  exist  in 
the  universe,  the  highest  privilege  of  every  human  being  is  that 
of  being  a  chooser — the  privilege  of  exercising  a  choice  between 
what  shall  and  what  shall  not  receive  his  attention.  The  ideas 
which  we  encourage  become  stronger,  last  longer,  and  exercise  the 
greatest  influence  on  our  habits  of  thought  and  conduct. 

Even  in  the  case  of  what  are  commonly  held  to  be  involuntary 
mental  processes,  which  crowd  themselves  upon  us  unwelcome  and 
unbidden,  when  we  are  consciously  all  unaware  of  their  existence 
— coming  as  the  result  of  previous  experiences — we  can,  to  a  very 
large  degree,  encourage  those  that  are  desirable  and  inhibit  others 
that  are  undesirable.  But,  while  we  can  only  partly  inhibit  those 
memory  pictures  that  are  undesirable,  we  can  as  choosers  decide 
what  shall  in  the  present  and  in  the  future  claim  our  conscious, 
intelligent  attention. 

Everything  that  claims  our  conscious  attention  strongly  and  per- 
sistently constitutes  "food  stuff"  for  the  subconscious  self,  which 
contributes  to  the  remolding  and  rebuilding  of  our  physical  and 
mental  constitutions.  Character  itself  is  evolved  in  accordance 
with  this  same  law. 

As  choosers,  then,  the  privilege  is  ours  to  be  open  and  receptive 
to  whatsoever  is  good,  true,  and  useful  in  the  realms  of  thought — 
as  expressed  in  the  literature  of  poetry,  fiction,  philosophy,  re- 
ligion, or  science,  or  from  association  with  individuals — that  may 
be  of  use  to  ourselves  or  other  human  beings.  We  should  study 


TRAINING    THE   SUBCONSCIOUS   SELF.  321 

it  honestly,  appropriate  its  truths,  and  live  by  them  in  all  depart- 
ments of  life. 

In  the  same  realm  of  human  experience,  with  respect  to  what- 
ever is  not  good,  and  not  true,  and  not  useful  for  our  best  growth 
and  development,  let  us  exercise  the  courage  of  our  convictions 
and  reject  it,  even  though  it  has  the  time-honored  sanction  of  con- 
ventionalism and  authority.  We  should  let  truth  herself  sum  up 
the  case,  and  guide  our  lives  and  conduct  in  accordance  with  the 
light  and  knowledge  of  the  present  age.  This  is  the  clue  to  the 
correct  training  of  the  subconscious  self. 

Then,  too,  since  we  realize  the  power  of  mind  upon  mind  and 
the  influence  of  the  mind  upon  the  body,  both  for  our  own  good 
and  for  the  benefit  of  others,  we  should  encourage  mental  states 
that  make  us  hopeful,  optimistic,  and  cheerful.  We  should  look 
upon  the  bright  side  of  everything  and  strive  to  say  and  do  some- 
thing to  cheer  the  lives  of  others.  As  we  sow  shall  we  also  reap 
is  the  law  of  nature  in  the  realm  of  both  thought  and  action.  Who- 
soever uses  suggestion  to  help  others  is  using  the  highest  form  of 
autosuggestion  to  help  himself.  Our  effort  to  create  healthful 
mental  states  in  others  reacts  upon  our  own  subconscious  selves, 
so  that  what  we  are  is  to  a  great  extent  the  result  of  what  we  have 
given  to  others. 

Individuality  and  strength  should  be  our  highest  and  most  con- 
stant aim  in  life.  The  great  subconscious  self,  with  its  millions  and 
millions  of  living  cells  of  brain,  and  blood,  and  bone,  and  muscle, 
all  reservoirs  of  expressive  energy,  is  for  us  to  educate,  train,  and 
develop  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  evolution.  Each  individual 
is  the  maker  of  himself  in  a  far  greater  sense  than  is  realized  by 
the  pessimistic  philosophers  of  our  age,  who  would  surrender  all 
to  heredity  and  environment.  The  limitations  set  by  heredity  and 
environment  are,  of  course,  beyond  question,  but,  when  once  we 
become  strong  enough  to  think  for  ourselves  and  to  rely  upon  the 
powers  and  capabilities  inherent  within  the  cells  of  our  organism, 
those  influences  that  would  fetter  and  mold  a  weaker  individual, 
and  hinder  bodily  and  mental  growth  and  development,  become 
for  us  strengthening  and  wholesome  exercise. 
Each  individual  contains  within  himself  an  ideal  man,  and  to 


SL  GGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

bring  forth  this  individual  harmoniously  and  symmetrically  devel- 
oped in  all  the  qualities  of  selfhood  should  be  our  constant  en- 
deavor. What  the  man  or  woman  of  the  future  is  to  be  depends 
upon  our  habits  of  thought  and  conduct  today.  No  proposition  is 
more  true  than  that  by  constant  endeavor  we  can  day  by  day  gain 
in  strength  of  body,  mind,  and  character. 

The  great  trouble  with  the  majority  of  people  is  that  they  have 
not  an  adequate  appreciation  of  the  potentialities  and  possibilities 
inherent  within  the  cells  of  their  own  organism,  which  are  ever 
ready  to  be  trained  into  active,  useful  service.  Others  are  satis- 
fied as  they  are,  and  they  constitute  a  large  percentage  of  our 
population.  They  are  drifting  along  day  after  day  without  mak- 
ing any  special  effort  at  self-development,  and  almost  wholly  de- 
pendent upon  others  to  think  and  do  for  them.  Depend  upon 
others  to  think,  and  act,  and  do  for  you,  and  you  become  incapa- 
ble of  thinking,  and  acting,  and  doing  for  yourself.  That  which 
makes  a  man  strong  in  all  the  qualities  of  self — social,  intellectual, 
physical,  moral,  business,  or  ethical — is  action,  effort,  concentra- 
tion, persistency,  determination. 

Recognition  of  our  defects  and  desire  for  self-improvement  are 
the  incentives  which  urge  us  to  higher  growth  and  development. 
Those  who  feel  that  they  are  self-sufficient,  and  are  all  that  they 
care  to  be,  have  not  been  stirred  by  the  influences  which  induce  a 
self-consciousness  that  gives  rise  to  the  impulse  to  make  effort. 
Perhaps  they  are  unfortunate,  and  have  not  been  awakened  to  a 
consciousness  of  what  they  are  as  compared  with  what  they  rnay 
become. 

The  hope  of  humanity  lies  in  the  law  of  the  "survival  of  the 
fittest."  The  great  mass  of  the  people  do  not  think  for  them- 
selves above  the  most  elementary  questions  of  life.  In  problems 
of  health  and  education,  ethical  and  moral  ideals,  their  views  are 
more  a  matter  of  inheritance  than  based  upon  intelligent  convic- 
tion as  the  result  of  careful  investigation.  The  physician  who  can 
arouse  them  to  observation,  reflection,  and  self-activity  is  doing 
them  the  highest  service  that  an  enlightened  mind  can  render. 

The  problems  of  health  are  the  problems  of  life,  and  pertain  to 
all  questions  of  human  interest.  Body,  mind,  and  character  are 


TRAINING   THE   SUBCONSCIOUS  SELF.  323 

in  it  reflections  of  the  great  subconscious  realm,  with  its  inherited 
or  acquired  impulses,  habits,  instincts,  or  ideals,  and  these,  like 
the  flower  garden,  need  to  be  continually  uprooted  and  reset.  The 
false,  and  barren,  and  useless  should  be  rejected,  and  new  varieties 
planted  in  keeping  with  knowledge  and  experience. 

Surely  this  line  of  thought  has  a  practical  application  in  the 
practice  of  medicine.  Stand  any  day  you  choose  on  a  street  corner 
and  see  the  masses  as  they  pass,  and  with  pencil  and  paper  in  hand 
make  a  mark  for  every  one  who  is  weak  and  living  minus  the  quali- 
ties of  a  normal,  healthy  individual,  and  you  will  find  that  at  least 
fifty  percent  of  our  population  have  weak  bodies  and  imperfect 
nervous  organizations. 

The  great  majority  of  those  who  are  sick  need  to  be  taught  how 
to  keep  well,  how  to  eat,  how  to  drink,  how  to  exercise,  how  to 
work,  and  how  to  sleep — in  short,  how  to  live.  More  than  at  any 
time  in  any  age  does  the  individual  need  self-reliance  and  the 
feeling  of  independence  and  freedom.  This  belongs  only  to  those 
who  have  achieved  sufficient  selfhood  to  dare  to  exercise  the  cour- 
age to  stand  by  their  convictions. 

Self-reliance  is  nothing  more  than  one's  own  recognition  of  his 
or  her  ability  to  act,  and  think,  and  live  according  to  the  dictates 
of  reason  and  judgment.  Each  individual  has  a  different  problem 
to  solve.  All  people  are  not  "born  free  and  equal,"  so  far  as 
heredity  and  environment  are  concerned,  but  all  are  born  with  the 
privilege  to  think,  act,  and  do  for  themselves,  that  the  greatest 
health  and  happiness  may  be  maintained. 

People,  as  a  rule,  are  not  sufficiently  educated  to  take  their  lives 
into  their  own  hands.  In  their  efforts  to  do  for  themselves  and 
to  struggle  with  the  problems  of  life,  they  make  many  blunders 
which  react  with  ill  results  to  both  mind  and  body,  and,  as  experts 
in  the  healing  art,  our  aid  is  sought  to  help  them.  They  do  not 
always  need  medicine,  but  they  do  always  need  education,  knowl- 
edge, and  guidance. 

The  physician  must  have  more  than  profession!  knowledge  and 
skill.  He  should  be  an  expression  of  the  highest  thought  and  cul- 
ture of  his  age — to  be  prepared  to  take  his  place  as  a  leader  and 
teacher  of  his  fellowman. 


324  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

The  practice  of  medicine  offers  great  privileges  for  real,  genuine, 
unselfish  service.  The  opportunities  for  being  of  real  help  to  our 
fellowman  are  the  greatest  of  any  calling  in  the  list  of  human 
achievement.  In  no  other  profession  are  such  conditions  offered 
for  brain  development,  self-reliance,  and  altruism. 

The  people  have  a  right  to  make  every  effort  to  keep  healthy 
and  strong  without  relying  upon  us  to  administer  to  their  physical 
necessities.  It  should  be  a  part  of  our  work  to  help  them  to  help 
themselves,  and  then  the  followers  of  the  different  nonmedical 
therapeutic  systems  would  no  longer  continue  their  hold  upon  the 
people. 

So  long  as  new-born  babies  come  to  gladden  the  hearts  of  the 
men  and  women  of  the  world,  physicians  will  be  in  demand. 
While  human  endeavor  continues,  accidents  will  happen  and  the 
surgeon  will  be  needed.  We  have  not  yet  subdued  the  mosquito 
so  as  to  prevent  his  carrying  malaria  and  yellow  fever  germs,  or 
eradicated  vice  to  prevent  the  diseases  of  physical  degradation  due 
to  infectious  germs. 

The  Klebs-Loffler  bacillus,  the  bacilli  of  anthrax  and  typhoid 
fever,  and  the  thousand  other  germs  of  infection,  do  not  respect 
even  a  healthy  human  organism,  and  for  all  these  conditions  the 
services  of  the  physician  will  be  invoked.  The  astigmatic  eye  and 
other  refractive  errors  are  here  to  stay  to  cause  reflex  disturbances 
and  functional  diseases  of  both  mind  and  body.  Infantile  dis- 
eases will  claim  our  little  ones  as  long  as  it  is  human  to  err  in 
dietetics  and  the  world  remains  the  abode  of  Weischelbaum 's  ba- 
cillus of  meningitis  and  other  infectious  diseases.  The  great  white 
plague  alone  claims  one  out  of  ten  of  all  human  beings.  In  spite 
of  our  knowledge  of  mental  therapeutics,  women  will  grow  tumors, 
and  a  million  years  of  special  effort  will  not  annihilate  the  physical 
results  of  inebriety  and  syphilis  or  prevent  insanity  in  its  various 
forms. 

The  one  sure  event  in  the  pathway  of  every  human  being  is 
death,  sooner  or  later,  and  the  one  hope  of  every  individual  is  that 
his  life  will  be  prolonged.  Let  us,  then,  do  all  we  can  with  all 
therapeutic  measures  when  the  people  are  sick,  but  by  all  means 


TRAINING   THE   SUBCONSCIOUS   SELF.  325 

let  us  help  them  to  keep  well  by  teaching  them  how  to  live,  as  far 
as  possible,  to  maintain  healthy  bodies. 

The  benefit  to  be  derived  from  work,  exercise,  water,  laughter, 
rest,  food,  companionship,  education,  environment,  and  self-devel- 
opment in  a  thousand  ways  should  be  ever  kept  before  them.  All 
these  things  should  be  studied  by  the  people,  and  all  these  consti- 
tute the  correct  training  of  the  subconscious  self. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

COKRECT  DIAGNOSIS  A  SAFEGUARD  AGAINST 
BLUNDERS. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  a  good  clinician  has  a  wonderful 
advantage  over  the  individual  who  has  not  had  sufficient  training 
and  the  necessary  experience  to  interpret  the  symptoms  of  a  dis- 
ease, and  quickly  couple  those  symptoms  with  its  etiology,  pathol- 
ogy, prognosis,  and  treatment. 

As  has  been  stated  in  previous  pages,  suggestive  therapeutics 
should  be  applied  with  an  understanding  and  comprehension  of 
the  anatomical  and  physiological  relations  of  the  organism  as  well 
as  of  the  pathological  conditions  to  be  alleviated. 

Good  men  in  our  profession  who  do  not  sufficiently  appreciate 
the  psychic  factor  in  therapeutics  are  frequently  so  engrossed  with 
pathology  that  they  forget  to  tell  the  patient  what  he  can  expect 
in  the  way  of  recovery  and  to  keep  this  idea  constantly  impressed 
upon  him.  They  do,  however,  often  impress  him  with  the  serious- 
ness of  his  condition  in  a  detailed  explanation  of  its  pathology, 
but  they  fail  to  inspire  him  with  a  conviction  of  recovery.  Such 
physicians  leave  the  patient  depressed,  and  if,  forsooth,  he  happens 
to  fall  into  the  hands  of  a  quack  who  has  sufficient  personality  to 
lift  him  out  of  the  depression  thrust  upon  him,  and  recovery  is 
not  incompatible  with  the  pathology  of  his  disease,  the  patient  "is 
cured"  and  the  physician's  reputation  is  injured. 

As  bearing  upon  this  subject,  in  a  discussion  of  a  paper  read  by 
me  in  one  of  our  larger  cities,  one  of  the  best  known  men  in  the 
medical  profession  thus  expressed  himself:  "Now,  gentlemen,  you 
know  as  well  as  I  that  there  are  a  great  many  people  in  this  city 
that  have  been  treated  by  some  of  our  very  best  physicians  for 
months  and  years,  but  satisfactory  results  have  failed  to  be  at- 
tained by  them.  Yet,  those  same  patients,  after  going  the  rounds 
from  one  physician  to  another,  finally  land  in  the  office  of  some 

326 


CORRECT    DIAGNOSIS   A    SAFEGUARD.  327 

one  of  the  notorious  quacks  in  the  city,  and  do  obtain  the  relief 
so  vainly  sought  at  our  hands.  When  we  know  that  such  things 
as  this  exist  all  about  us,  it  seems  the  time  has  come  when  we  can 
afford  to  study  some  of  the  secrets  of  the  quack,  for  what  they  can 
do  for  morbid  processes  we  also  can  do." 

At  that  same  discussion  another  physician,  in  the  course  of  her 
remarks,  said:  "Doctor  Munro  dares  to  speak  out  aloud  what  all 
thinking  physicians  have  recognized,  but  do  not  express,  except  at 
low  breath  when  among  themselves." 

This  line  of  therapeutics  is  undergoing  a  rapid  evolution,  and 
the  true,  and  useful,  and  good  that  are  in  it  are  being  sifted  from 
the  false  and  useless.  Those  of  our  profession  who  take  a  stand 
against  it  are  doing  much  to  encourage  the  followers  of  the  modern 
"creeds"  and  "cults,"  "ists"  and  "paths,"  who  go  to  extremes 
in  their  views  of  the  influence  of  the  mind  over  the  body. 

People  easily  believe  that  which  it  is  to  their  interest  to  believe. 
Physicians  are  educated  to  their  view  that  medicine  is  the  natural 
recourse  of  the  sick  man,  and  it  is  hard  for  them  to  recognize  the 
psychologic  factor  because  it  happens  to  be  the  basis  of  all  forms 
of  quackery.  Yet,  the  thinking  portion  of  the  American  people 
are  on  the  alert,  and  they  are  ever  ready  to  accept  and  support 
anything  true  and  useful,  it  matters  not  how  strong  their  preju- 
dice may  have  been.  Christian  science,  Weltmerism,  etc.,  have 
served  a  useful  purpose.  They  have  stimulated  the  people  to  re- 
flect and  exercise  more  self-control,  but  they  have  made,  and  are 
destined  yet  to  make,  many  gross  and  painful  blunders  before  their 
fanatical  zeal  is  quelled. 

In  several  instances  within  my  knowledge  disastrous  results  have 
followed  the  vigorous  methods  of  those  who  use  massage  as  a  means 
of  suggestion.  In  a  case  of  acute  articular  rheumatism  in  a  little 
boy  of  twelve,  the  inflammation  which  followed  this  treatment  by 
vigorous  massage  was  such  that  an  amputation  of  the  limb  was 
necessary  to  save  the  little  fellow's  life. 

In  a  case  of  diphtheria  the  methods  employed  served  only  to 
increase  the  inflammatory  exudate,  and  a  speedy  death  followed, 
whereas  the  timely  employment  of  antitoxin  in  diphtheria  has  re- 
duced tbe  mortality  of  that  disease  to  a  very  small  death  rate. 


328  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

A  case  of  acute  mastoiditis,  resulting  from  a  neglected  middle- 
ear  disease,  was  treated  by  the  methods  of  the  Christian  scientist, 
whereby  surgical  intervention  was  withheld  until  too  late  to  be 
effective. 

In  several  instances  it  has  come  to  my  knowledge  where  appen- 
dicular  abscesses  were  ruptured  by  massage  with  fatal  conse- 
quences, to  say  nothing  of  children  with  gastroenterocolitis  who 
died  under  Christian  science  psychotherapeutics,  while  legitimate, 
prophylactic,  antiseptic,  medicinal,  and  dietetic  methods  were  with- 
held. 

I  once  witnessed  the  removal  of  sixty-five  stones  from  the  gall- 
bladder of  a  woman  who  had  been  taught  to  ignore  such  ''errors 
of  mortal  mind,"  but,  after  becoming  weak,  jaundiced,  and  anemic, 
with  all  bodily  functions  disturbed,  she  at  last  yielded  to  the 
rational  advice  of  her  friends  in  time  to  resort  to  surgical  pro- 
cedures for  relief  and  recovered. 

At  a  Christian  science  service  not  long  since,  just  in  front  of 
me  sat  a  young  man  who  was  rapidly  losing  his  hair  as  a  result 
of  an  infection  of  the  hair  follicles  with  the  germ  which  causes 
seborrheic  eczema.  The  psychic  effect  -of  his  religion  upon  him 
was  great,  but  the  germs  went  on  with  their  work  just  the  same. 

Christian  science  was  held  before  the  attention  of  the  audience 
by  readings,  songs,  and  prayer  as  a  sovereign  remedy  for  sin,  sick- 
ness, and  death.  Over  on  my  left  sat  a  lady  in  mourning.  With 
her  head  drooped  and  lips  closed  tightly,  she  sat  there,  not  at  all 
receptive,  and  took  her  medicine,  though  her  expression  showed 
a  consciousness  that  realized  the  mockery  of  all  that  was  receiving 
her  attention.  Her  face  was  sad  because  her  husband  was  dead, 
and  this  experience  was  setting  up  a  mental  reaction  to  all  the 
negations  that  fell  upon  her  ears. 

Over  on  my  right  sat  a  gentleman  with  eyes  open  like  full  moons, 
and  his  lower  jaw  dropped  as  if  it  had  no  muscles  to  support  it, 
with  a  well-fixed  gaze  upon  the  reader  of  the  suggestions  that  had 
been  prepared  to  hypnotize  the  audience.  He  was  suffering  with 
locomotor  ataxia,  and,  though  credulous,  receptive,  and  suggestible 
in  the  most  complete  sense,  he  walked  away  upon  two  "errors  of 
mortal  mind,"  usually  called  crutches. 


CORRECT    DIAGNOSIS   A   SAFEGUARD.  329 

Yet,  physicians  are  far  from  infallible.  All  their  patients  do 
not  get  well,  neither  does  absolute  knowledge  upon  any  subject 
exist,  while  every  conception,  or  theory,  or  viewpoint  represents 
some  relative  phase  of  truth  to  be  determined  by  individual  ex- 
perience. 

While  we  know  what  mercury  will  do  in  syphilis,  and  quinin 
in  malaria,  and  sulphur  in  itch,  and  antitoxin  timely  administered 
in  diphtheria,  and  what  the  result  of  corrected  errors  of  refraction 
will  bring  in  the  relief  of  headaches  and  numerous  functional  dis- 
turbances, and  what  relief  surgery  will  bring  in  gross  pathological 
changes,  etc.,  yet  there  are  many  conditions  confronted  in  all  lines 
of  professional  work  in  which  we  do  not  know  absolutely  what  the 
outcome  will  be,  and  no  physician  has  done  his  full  duty  until  he 
has  given  his  patient  the  full  benefit  of  every  therapeutic  aid. 
The  rule  should  be,  "while  there  is  life  there  is  hope." 

Two  cases  here  cited  that  have  been  brought  to  my  attention 
will  illustrate  the  blunders  that  may  be  made  by  too  quickly  jump- 
ing at  conclusions  without  due  appreciation  of  the  psychologic 
factor  in  therapeutics. 

A  well-known  physician  and  surgeon  was  consulted  in  reference 
to  a  patient  of  another  physician  with  an  incipient  malignant  af- 
fection of  the  cervix,  and  he  strongly  advised  operative  procedures 
as  the  only  safe  course  to  pursue.  The  operation  was  deferred, 
and  several  months  later  this  patient  was  taken  on  a  litter  to  a 
prominent  surgeon  in  one  of  our  larger  cities.  After  carefully  con- 
sidering the  case,  together  with  the  assistance  of  a  well-known 
pathologist  who  made  a  microscopical  examination  to  determine  the 
exact  character  of  the  disease,  he  declined  to  operate,  as  he  be- 
lieved this  would  only  serve  to  transplant  the  disease  to  more  vital 
structures  and  hasten  her  death.  Discouraged  and  hopeless,  the 
lady  finally  yielded  after  much  protest  to  the  solicitation  of  a 
Christian  science  friend,  and  consented  to  do  so  because  this  was 
the  only  promise  held  out  to  her  for  a  possible  hold  on  life.  After 
three  or  four  months'  treatment  by  Christian  science  psychological 
methods,  that  lady  had  gained  twenty  pounds  and  returned  home, 
walking  erect  and  strong,  and  after  three  years  would  occasionally 
call  upon  the  consulting  surgeon  in  her  home  town  who  advised 


330  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

the  operation  in  the  incipiency  of  her  disease,  and  laugh  heartily 
over  the  incidents  connected  with  her  case.  The  facts  in  this  case 
can  be  well  authenticated. 

Again,  in  a  western  city  a  gentleman  about  thirty-five  years  of 
age  had  been  treated  for  pulmonary  tuberculosis  for  a  period  ex- 
tending over  many  months,  and  was  finally  advised  to  go  to  a 
higher  and  drier  altitude,  his  physician  assuring  him  that  this  was 
the  only  hope  offered  for  him.  He  went  to  a  town  situated  just 
west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  carried  with  him  a  letter  of 
introduction  from  his  home  physician,  together  with  a  report  from 
a  competent  pathologist  showing  sputa  teeming  with  tubercle  ba- 
cilli. After  examination  and  observation  for  several  days,  this 
physican  advised  the  sufferer  to  go  home  at  once  and  die  among 
his  friends  and  relatives.  He  then  sought  the  assistance  of  a  Chris- 
tian scientist,  and  after  two  days  did  return  home  inspired  with 
hope,  and,  having  been  able  to  sleep  and  eat  under  the  psychic 
effects  of  that  method,  he  was  much  improved,  and  put  himself 
under  the  care  of  a  Christian  science  "practitioner"  at  his  home 
town.  When  I  saw  him  he  was  holding  the  position  of  city  attor- 
ney, and  in  his  hands  he  held  the  report  of  the  pathologist,  as 
unquestionable  proof  of  the  correctness  of  his  history,  which  he 
flaunted,  while  he  enthusiastically  related  his  experience  at  one  of 
their  midweek  meetings,  stating  that  he  had  gained  thirty  pounds, 
and  was  enjoying  life — eating,  working,  and  happy. 

As  illustrating  another  phase  of  the  subject  at  hand,  however, 
in  another  western  city  a  well-known  physician  advised  an  imme- 
diate operation  for  an  incipient  malignant  disease  of  the  cervix. 
Seeing  his  patient  a  few  weeks  later,  he  very  naturally  greeted  her 
and  expressed  his  pleasure  at  seeing  her  looking  so  well.  "Oh,  I 
have  never  been  sick,  doctor.  That  was  all  an  'error  of  mortal 
mind.'  I  am  perfectly  well."  Her  phraseology  at  once  "put  him 
next,"  so,  with  the  salutation,  "I  wish  you  well,  madam,"  he  mod- 
estly left  her. 

Several  months  later  she  returned  to  his  office.  The  temporary 
psychic  stimulation  that  had  for  awhile  held  her  up,  in  spite  of 
the  existing  pathological  conditions,  had  reacted,  and  now  that 
characteristic,  sallow,  cachectic  hue  which  attends  this  disease  was 


CORRECT   DIAGNOSIS   A   SAFEGUARD.  331 

plainly  in  evidence.  She  was  weak  and  anemic,  nervous  and  over- 
anxious about  her  condition.  She  had  at  last  decided  to  have  him 
operate,  but  she  had  waited  too  long,  and  there  was  nothing  left 
but  to  leave  her  to  face  the  inevitable. 

In  the  first  case  of  ''malignant  disease"  it  is  probable  that  the 
pathologist  was  mistaken;  and  tuberculosis,  under  favorable  cli- 
matic conditions  and  when  not  too  far  advanced,  is  by  no  means 
an  incurable  disease.  Good  food,  dry  open  air,  sunshine  and  op- 
timism often  do  wonders  in  the  way  of  giving  the  recuperative 
powers  of  such  patients  an  opportunity  to  overcome  pathogenic 
bacteria  and  re-establish  a  condition  of  health.  In  less  serious 
affections,  especially,  should  the  influence  that  the  psychic  factor 
exerts  be  well  kept  in  mind  before  an  unfavorable  prognosis  is 
rendered,  for  there  are  numerous  instances  in  which  the  prognosis 
may  determine  the  outcome  of  the  disease  on  account  of  the  part 
played  by  suggestion  in  aiding  or  retarding  recovery. 

In  many  diseases  an  exact  diagnosis  is  not  always  possible, 
though  few  expert  diagnosticians  will  admit  this,  and  even  in 
psychiatry  and  nervous  diseases  those  that  are  amenable  to  treat- 
ment, either  curative  or  palliative,  are  benefited  just  in  proportion 
as  the  mental  and  bodily  functions,  both  voluntary  and  involuntary, 
are  encouraged  into  normal  activity. 

No  possible  harm  can  come  to  the,  individual  by  suggestive  meas- 
ures, used  either  with  or  without  hypnotism,  which  are  only  a 
means  of  getting  the  individual  to  rely  upon  the  properties,  facul- 
ties, and  functions  inherent  within  the  biological  elements  of  the 
cells  of  his  organism.  By  suggestion  we  can  stimulate  and  de- 
velop all  bodily  and  mental  functions,  both  voluntary  and  involun- 
tary. 

All  other  sane,  sensible  measures  are,  of  course,  not  to  be  neg- 
lected, such  as  rest  or  exercise,  dietetics,  hydrotherapy — both  in- 
ternal and  external — relaxation,  deep  breathing,  and  materia  med- 
ica  agencies,  as  the  individual  case  indicates.  Yet,  there  are  many 
cases,  not  incompatible  with  complete  recovery,  in  which  the  pa- 
tient would  get  well,  due  attention  being  given  to  the  psychologic 
factor,  but  which  would  not  recover  without  its  aid. 

In  all  cases  let  us  give  the  patient  the  benefit  of  the  doubt. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

PHILOSOPHY  AND  KELIGION— THEIR  RELATION  TO 

HEALTH. 

From  a  psychological  standpoint  all  religious  services  of  all 
denominations  are  especially  interesting.  If  we  attend  them  to 
learn,  we  usually  find  our  lesson  between  the  lines. 

The  psychic  effect  of  the  commingling  of  several  hundred  male 
and  female  voices,  with  sentiments  of  love  expressed  in  song ;  with 
the  martial  spirit  of  soldiers  battling  in  unison  and  marching  as 
conquerors  from  victory  to  victory ;  amid  music  and  beautiful  flow- 
ers, fine  clothes  and  suggestive  mottoes,  and  mystical  carvings;  all 
these  combine  to  have  a  significance  but  little  appreciated  by  one 
in  a  thousand  of  the  people  of  our  times.  They  subtly  and  gently 
stimulate  all  the  involuntary  cells  of  the  body,  and  temporarily 
lift  the  individual  out  of  his  self-conscious  physical  and  psychical 
weaknesses,  and,  in  general,  when  free  from  emotional  excitement, 
prove  to  be  an  experience  which,  like  other  stimulations,  reacts  with 
benefit  upon  both  mind  and  body. 

Suggestion  is  to  be  seen  in  all  such  experiences  from  start  to 
finish.  The  methods  adopted  by  the  clergyman  of  getting  en  rap- 
port with  the  audience — the  unconsciously  induced  condition  of 
receptivity  by  quartets  composed  of  male  and  female  voices,  the 
reading  responded  to  by  the  audience,  followed  by  a  female  solo — 
all  create  a  psychic  condition  which  renders  the  individual  forget- 
ful of  self  and  his  surroundings. 

For  the  time  being  he  is  completely  amenable  to  the  suggestion 
given  from  the  pulpit  orator,  who  for  from  thirty  to  sixty  minutes 
has  the  opportunity  to  create  sense  impressions  and  present  ideas  or 
suggestions  that  are  beneficial  or  harmful,  as  the  case  may  be. 
They  are  wholesome,  beneficial,  and  helpful  suggestions  just  in 
proportion  as  they  are  the  reflection  of  a  broad,  well-educated, 
truth-loving  mind  or  personality. 

332 


PHILOSOPHY    AND   RELIGION    IN    RELATION    TO    HEALTH.  333 

It  has  been  my  privilege  to  hear  such  men  in  all  denominations, 
both  Protestant  and  Catholic,  Jew  and  Gentile,  Mormon  and  Free 
Thinkers,  as  well  as  promulgators  of  Oriental  philosophies  and  re- 
ligions, containing  much  that  is  true,  and  useful,  and  good. 

Just  in  proportion  as  the  people  are  becoming  sufficiently  well 
educated  to  comprehend  in  some  degree  the  cosmic  order  of  the 
universe  and  the  laws  of  its  evolution,  and  to  appreciate  the  part 
played  by  heredity,  environment,  and  education  in  determining 
the  ideas  and  ideals  which  go  to  construct  the  religious  beliefs  of 
individuals,  are  they  becoming  more  open  to  accept  the  contribu- 
tion made  by  science  to  our  moral  and  religious  philosophy. 

The  more  enlightened  element  of  all  denominations  now  admits 
that  science  has  in  numerous  instances  unquestionably  demon- 
strated that  religious  teachings  have  at  times  been  wrong  as  to 
matters  of  fact.  Be  that  as  it  may,  man  is  a  religious  being,  for 
he  is  by  nature  a  truth  seeker,  and  every  one  must  either  have  a 
philosophy  of  his  own  in  reference  to  the  questions  of  life  or  be 
creed-fettered  by  some  fixed  religious  dogma,  which  seeks  to  mold 
him  according  to  prescribed  ideals. 

At  no  time  in  the  world's  history  were  the  rights  of  the  indi- 
vidual so  much  appreciated  as  now.  All  religions  are  useful  just 
in  proportion  as  they  contribute  to  the  development  of  the  indi- 
vidual in  body  and  mind. 

As  long  as  religion  appeals  to  the  intellect  and  renders  the  in- 
dividual conscious  of  his  privilege  of  being  a  thinking,  reasoning, 
responsible  entity,  with  the  power  to  exercise  choice  as  to  what  shall 
and  what  shall  not  enter  his  life;  as  long  as  its  promulgators  in- 
spire men  and  women  with  high  ideals,  and  point  to  sane,  rational, 
sensible  rules  of  conduct,  both  for  self-betterment  and  for  the 
health  of  his  f ellowman ;  as  long  as  it  teaches  him  self-appreciation 
and  altruism,  and  its  influence  is  for  what  is  good,  and  true,  and 
useful  for  human  happiness,  and  health,  and  growth,  the  bene- 
ficial influence  of  religion  for  the  evolution  of  the  individual  can 
not  be  questioned. 

The  sublime  faith  that  carries  with  it  a  conviction  that  is  un- 
shaken,  that  brings  peace,  eliminates  fear,  and  makes  life  serene, 
or  a  reasonable  philosophy  thnt  is  entirely  satisfactory  to  the  in- 


334  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

dividual  in  regard  to  his  past  evolution,  present  conduct,  and  future 
development,  is  as  essential  to  the  life,  health,  and  happiness  of 
a  rational  human  being  as  is  food,  water,  exercise,  sleep,  air,  con- 
genial associates,  or  other  life  essentials.  It  is  here  that  the  mind 
takes  refuge  in  those  problems  that  are  forced  upon  the  attention 
of  all  civilized  races. 

Yet,  when  the  emotions  have  been  wrought  upon  and  the  indi- 
vidual is  led  into  that  extreme  state  of  monoideaism  which  exists 
in  religious  ecstasy  with  crying,  shouting,  or  other  manifestations 
of  joy  or  grief,  pleasure  or  hope,  and  he  or  she  is  no  longer  under 
the  guidance  and  control  of  reason,  it  can  but  be  regarded  as 
psychical  prostitution  pure  and  simple. 

The  psychical  correlation  between  religious  emotion  and  the  ani- 
mal passions  is  now  recognized  by  all  our  ablest  psychologists,  neu- 
rologists, and  psychiatrists.  The  erotic  and  religious  feelings  are 
so  closely  associated  that  the  step  from  the  emotional  religious 
enthusiast  to  the  sexual  prostitute  is  but  a  very  short  one. 

As  bearing  upon  this  subject,  Howard  says:  ''Religious  emo- 
tion springs  from  the  animating  power  of  the  sexual  nature,  and 
through  the  emotion  thus  aroused  we  deify  and  worship  the  inspira- 
tional source  of  our  spiritual  longings." 

Kraft-Ebing  remarks:  "How  powerfully  sensuality  expresses 
itself  in  the  histories  of  religious  fanatics,  and  in  what  revolting 
scenes,  true  orgies,  the  religious  festivals  of  antiquity,  no  less  than 
the  meetings  of  certain  sects  in  modern  times,  express  themselves. 
.  .  .  Owing  to  the  correspondence  in  many  points  between  these 
two  emotional  states,  it  is  clear  that  when  they  are  very  intense 
the  one  may  take  the  place  of  the  other,  since  every  manifestation 
of  one  element  of  mental  life  also  intensifies  its  associations. ' ' 

The  reader  is  aware  that  the  more  enlightened  leaders  of  all 
religions  now  openly  oppose  any  form  of  emotional  excitement  in 
religious  services,  and  regard  it  as  a  deplorable  relic  of  ancient 
barbarism.  But,  be  that  as  it  may,  it  has  been  my  experience  to 
attend  such  meetings  all  over  our  country,  and  the  consciousness 
of  the  degrading  influence  of  such  meetings  on  innocent,  impressi- 
ble, and  highly  suggestible  boys  and  girls,  men  and  women,  who 


PHILOSOPHY    AND   RELIGION    IN    RELATION   TO   HEALTH.  335 

are  the  victims  of  these  induced  endemics  of  temporary  emotional 
insanity,  has  been  particularly  painful  and  revolting  to  me. 

Children,  as  well  as  men  and  women,  who  are  not  sufficiently 
educated  to  think  for  themselves  upon  these  questions  are,  when 
the  emotions  are  stirred,  suggestible  in  the  highest  degree,  and  any 
method  of  coercion  which  incites  fear,  plays  upon  the  imagination, 
and  dethrones  reason  is  prostitution  of  body  and  mind.  One  neu- 
rotic boy  of  my  knowledge  remained  in  a  subconscious  state  all 
night  long,  and  his  nervous  system  never  reacted  from  the  shock 
or  sense  impressions  of  that  experience.  He  was  weak-minded  and 
hysterical  ever  afterward,  and  finally  became  insane  and  died  in. 
the  asylum.  A  neurotic  woman,  after  having  been  subject  to  re- 
ligious excitement  for  several  days,  began  having  cataleptic  seiz- 
ures, and  had  kept  this  up  constantly  every  day  for  two  years, 
being  all  the  while  in  a  state  of  religious  fervor,  and  was  frequently 
visited  by  her  minister,  who  would  talk  and  pray  with  her,  thus 
keeping  up  this  morbid,  psychoneurotic  condition. 

It  has  been  my  experience  to  be  called  in  consultation  to  see  two 
persons,  ill  with  an  acute  disease,  who  died  as  a  result  of  the  effect 
of  having  been  for  several  days  subjected  to  the  injurious  sense 
impressions  produced  by  a  fanatical,  emotional  revivalist.  The 
timely  use  of  suggestion  to  drive  back  these  perverted  mental  states 
and  plant  new  sense  impressions  in  their  stead  would,  no  doubt, 
have  altered  the  results,  but  neither  of  these  patients  was  amenable 
to  treatment  at  the  time  I  visited  them. 

The  conviction  of  sin,  and  fear  of  hell  and  the  awfulness  of  the 
''judgment  day,"  were  impressed  upon  them  until  every  organic 
function  had  been  disturbed,  they  had  been  unable  to  sleep,  food 
and  medicine  had  not  been  assimilated,  and  they  died  of  diseases 
from  which  under  different  conditions  they  should  have  made  a 
speedy  and  sure  recovery.  Such  has  been  the  experience  of  hun- 
dreds of  physicians  of  my  acquaintance  as  a  result  of  emotional, 
religious  excitement. 

But,  aside  from  the  danger  that  such  pernicious  influences  exert 
upon  life  itself,  the  positive  harm  to  the  development  and  growth 
of  body  and  mind  is  the  worst.  To  speak  plainly,  the  effect  upon 
the  entire  individual  is  identical  with  that  of  excessive  sexual  inter- 


336  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

course,  and  it  is  questionable  if  the  results  upon  mind  and  body 
of  sexual  excesses  are  not  even  less  injurious. 

Every  intellectual  state  is  accompanied  by  definite  physical  mani- 
festations. The  physical  concomitants  of  such  psychical  states  as 
where  the  individual  is  under  the  sway  of  emotional  religious  ex- 
citement are  vasomotor  phenomena,  respiratory  phenomena,  and 
motor  phenomena,  or  phenomena  of  expression. 

The  vascular  modifications  that  take  place  are  felt  in  the  form 
of  arterial  pulsations,  heaviness,  and  a  sense  of  choking,  all  of 
which  are  usually  ascribed  to  being  ''the  power  of  the  holy  spirit" 
acting  upon  the  individual.  They  all  denote  a  state  of  tension  of 
the  organism  and  of  concentration  of  effort.  Such  emotion  is  con- 
tagious. Mental  states  beget  similar  mental  states  in  others  who 
are  so  situated  as  to  receive  sense  impressions  from  those  thus 
affected.  The  tension  produced  upon  the  nervous  system  and  the 
physical  reaction  to  such  experiences  for  several  days  in  succession 
leaves  such  individuals  nervous  and  weak,  with  all  bodily  functions 
disturbed.  Sleep  is  hindered,  and  they  are  often  pale  and  indiffer- 
ent to  interest  in  all  other  things  except  religious  matters. 

We  all  realize  that  this  is  nothing  more  than  a  condition  of 
hysteria,  but  such  hysteria  is  contagious,  and  when  often  repeated 
forms  a  habit,  and  such  habits  are  positively  injurious.  To  be  ex- 
posed to  such  influences  interferes  with  the  growth  of  both  mind 
and  body  of  children,  and  the  habit  of  having  one's  psychic  life 
controlled  and  played  upon  by  an  emotional  enthusiast,  in  the  per- 
sonality of  an  individual  of  the  opposite  sex,  is  positively  de- 
structive to  the  essential  conditions  of  a  happy  marriage  relation. 

To  educate  an  individual  to  be  guided  and  controlled  by  emotion 
or  passion  in  religious  matters,  and  expect  him  to  exercise  reason 
and  judgment  in  reference  to  other  phases  of  his  life's  conduct, 
would  mean  to  teach  him  to  act  directly  contrary  to  his  religious 
teaching. 

The  overexpenditure  of  nervous  energy  from  such  emotional 
religious  experiences  and  the  habit  of  being  psychically  aroused  by 
such  experiences  reduces  the  individual  to  a  condition  of  mental 
and  physical  inertness.  It  is  horrible  to  contemplate,  but  there 
are  thousands  of  ardent  female  religious  devotees  whose  psychic 


PHILOSOPHY    AND   RELIGION    IN    RELATION    TO   HEALTH.  337 

life  is  so  dominated  and  controlled  by  their  church  executive  or 
<;  spiritual  adviser"  that  their  husbands  find  no  more  place  in  their 
higher  nature  than  a  dog  finds  comfort  upon  the  grave  of  his  buried 
master. 

This  state  of  affairs  reduces  such  marriage  relations  into  noth- 
ing less  than  legalized  prostitution.  Whoever  holds  the  attention 
of  an  individual,  stirs  his  emotions,  and  directs  his  thoughts, 
governs  his  actions  and  controls  his  life  both  consciously  and  sub- 
consciously ;  and  when  married  women  are  so  dominated  and  con- 
trolled, the  higher  social  affiliations  and  more  complete  amalgamation 
of  personalities  between  man  and  his  wife  are  rendered  impossible. 
Such  marriages,  then,  are  a  fraud  and  a  farce,  and  the  result  is 
unhappiness  and  nervousness,  functional  disorders  and  disease, 
Such  practices  might  be  excused  in  old  maids  and  widows  who  are 
safely  beyond  the  danger  of  ever  getting  married  and  who  have  no 
ambition  to  attain  in  life,  but  no  growing  young  man  or  woman,  or 
wife  or  prospective  mother  should  be  exposed  to  their  pernicious  in- 
fluences. 

Adolescence,  especially,  should  be  kept  free  from  an  environ- 
ment of  religious  fervor,  which  holds  the  constant  attention  of  the 
individual  and  causes  a  useless  expenditure  of  nervous  energy  to 
the  neglect  of  the  development  of  all  other  physical  and  mental 
attributes  that  should  be  cultivated  by  directing  the  person's  life 
into  the  normal,  healthful,  useful  lines  of  thought  and  action. 

The  religious  training  of  a  great  many  individuals  has  but  served 
to  educate  them  into  a  psychoneurotic  disease,  which  practically 
disqualifies  them  for  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  life.  To 
maintain  a  robust,  vigorous  state  of  health  and  physical  well-being 
while  adhering  to  such  religious  practices  is  an  absolute  impos- 
sibility. 

It  is  from  this  class  of  religious  neurotics  that  Christian 
science  largely  draws  its  membership,  and  its  dogma  of  negation 
and  affirmation  is  only  a  suggestive  means  to  drive  back  morbid 
states  of  consciousness  produced  by  sense  impressions  made  in 
times  gone  by  and  forgotten,  and  to  replace  these  by  conceptions, 
ideas,  sense  impressions,  or  suggestions  that  give  rise  to  a  new 
consciousness,  to  mental  states  that  are  more  pleasant,  more  hope- 


338  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

ful,  less  emotional,  more  optimistic  and  cheerful,  and  these  react 
favorably  upon  the  body.  With  all  its  absurdity,  Christian  science 
is  a  stepping-stone,  perhaps  not  an  indispensable  one,  to  the  evo- 
lution and  revision  that  is  today  taking  place  in  the  religious 
philosophies  of  the  world.  To  the  man  who  is  broad  enough,  and 
generous  enough,  and  wise  enough  to  detect  the  kernel  of  psycho- 
logical truth  buried  within  its  capsule  of  religious  dogma,  this 
cult  serves  as  an  illustration  for  an  important  lesson — namely, 
that  the  mind  and  the  influence  exerted  upon  it  through  religious 
worship  plays  an  important  role  in  the  cause  of  disease  and  the 
maintenance  of  health. 

People  are  not  to  be  blamed  for  their  religious  beliefs  or  habits 
of  conduct  in  life.  As  a  rule,  they  are  creatures  of  circumstance, 
fettered  by  environment,  unfortunate  heredity,  and  deficient  edu- 
cational advantages. 

The  clue  to  the  situation  was  unconsciously  admitted  by  a 
country  clergyman  in  the  South,  who,  in  discussing  the  evolution 
that  is  taking  place  in  religious  ideals  among  the  more  enlightened 
centers  of  our  country  and  the  part  that  education  exercises  in 
shaping  our  religious  beliefs,  answered,  ''Yes,  but  we  care  noth- 
ing about  such  ideals  and  education  down  here."  And  so  it  is 
with  every  one  in  reference  to  his  philosophic  and  religious  con- 
victions. He  instinctively  feels  that  he  is  right  from  his  view- 
point, and  he  is.  His  religion  fills  an  essential  need  to  his  life, 
and  he  has  as  much  right  to  it  as  he  has  to  life  itself.  And  so  has 
the  individual  who  has  acquired  a  broader  perspective  the  same 
right  to  reject  the  false,  worn  out,  and  useless,  and  to  interpret 
the  problems  of  life  for  himself. 

We  are  still  only  half  civilized.  Ten  million  years  of  growth, 
evolution,  and  development  will  not  have  remedied  all  the  conse- 
quences of  the  ignorance  that  exists  today. 

Institutions,  organizations,  and  religions  are  a  necessity.  When 
they  do  not  interfere  with  individual  liberty  and  expression,  they 
are  useful.  The  majority  of  people  are  incapable  of  thinking  and 
reasoning  for  themselves.  They  have  not  as  yet  acquired  strength 
of  intellect  and  knowledge  of  the  universe  sufficient  to  give  them 
the  confidence  to  take  their  lives  into  their  own  hands. 


PHILOSOPHY    AND    RELIGION    IN    RELATION    TO    HEALTH.  339 

To  them  the  power,  strength,  authority,  and  privileges  of  the  self- 
conscious  ego  are  as  much  a  stranger,  and  as  intangible  and  use- 
less in  the  choice  as  to  what  shall  govern  and  control  their  life, 
as  if  they  never  existed.  Indeed,  such  a  self -consciousness  to  them 
does  not  exist,  for  this  quality  of  human  personality  is  also  de- 
veloped according  to  the  general  laws  of  existence  through  heredity, 
environment,  and  education. 

However,  individual  responsibility  can  not  be  evaded.  Men  and 
women  who  know  better,  and  have  evolved  moral  courage  sufficient 
to  give  them  the  impulse  to  act  up  to  their  convictions,  are  im- 
pelled by  immutable  law  under  which  they  can  not  decide  to  do 
otherwise  than  press  forward,  and  onward,  and  upward,  and  they 
are  increasing  their  strength  day  by  day  according  to  the  law  of 
development  by  use. 

We  live  in  a  new  age  and  are  confronted  by  new  conditions. 
New  opportunities  are  thrust  upon  us.  We  must  live  up  to  our 
privileges  or  take  the  consequences.  We  must  turn  opportunities 
to  good  account.  We  must  each  go  our  route.  We  can  not  live 
and  do  as  any  other  individual  in  this  world  today  or  in  any  age 
has  done. 

The  great  need  of  the  world  is  men  and  women  to  interpret  life 
and  its  meaning  in  the  light  of  modern  education  and  enlighten- 
ment; such  as  will  speak  out  aloud  and  tell  the  truth  as  the  more 
enlightened  people  of  this  day  see  it,  and  who  will  not  be  in- 
timidated by  the  bulwarks  set  in  our  way  of  progress  by  the  igno- 
rance and  superstition  of  ages  past  and  gone. 

At  least  to  us,  as  physicians,  there  is  no  other  time  but  now,  and 
no  other  place  but  here,  and  a  billion  of  years  will  not  make  it 
otherwise. 


CHAPTER  XX. 
CONSERVATION  OF  ENERGY. 

Education  and  Control  of  the  Emotions — Breathing,  Relaxation, 
Dietetics,  Etc. — More  power,  strength,  and  ability  is  a  radical  crav- 
ing of  the  human  being.  Such  cravings  are  as  instinctive  as  the 
desire  to  live. 

Each  individual  is  endowed  with  latent  potentialities  or  energy 
expressed  in  the  millions  of  cells  of  his  organism,  according  to  their 
quality,  and  these  he  may  use  or  abuse  as  he  decides  for  himself. 

How  to  create  and  conserve  the  highest  expression  of  personality 
as  represented  by  body  and  mind,  in  order  that  the  greatest  hap- 
piness may  be  maintained,  is  worthy  of  the  serious  consideration  of 
every  intelligent  human  being. 

When  we  take  stock  of  ourselves,  we  find  that  we  have  all  the 
qualities  of  the  lower  animals,  and  others  besides,  which  are  the 
distinguishing  characteristics  between  human  beings  and  the  lower 
forms  of  intelligence.  Appetites,  passions,  emotions,  feelings,  de- 
sires, and  a  consideration  for  others  of  its  species  belong  to  the 
animals  beneath  us.  Man  alone  of  all  the  animal  creation  is  capable 
of  thinking  and  reasoning,  and  of  communicating  his  ideas  to 
others  in  spoken  and  written  language. 

No  rule  of  conduct  can  be  pointed  out  as  a  guide  as  to  the  best 
methods  for  the  individual  to  pursue  in  order  that  the  highest  de- 
gree of  physical  strength,  intellectual  development,  and  moral  char- 
acter may  be  maintained.  That  is  the  problem  that  confronts 
every  individual.  It  is  the  problem  of  life  which  each  one  must 
solve  for  himself;  yet,  how  many  there  are  who  fail  to  live  up  to 
their  privileges. 

When  we,  as  physicians,  are  brought  face  to  face  with  the  prob- 
lem of  treating  disease,  we  have  but  to  reflect  for  a  moment  to  see 
that  the  real  problem  for  the  individual  is  how  to  live. 

The  most  fruitful  cause  of  disease  and  weakness  of  body  and 

340 


CONSERVATION    OF   ENERGY.  341 

mind  lies  in  uncontrolled  and  misguided  appetites,  emotions,  and 
passions,  and  a  failure  to  properly  conserve  and  direct  our  mental 
and  physical  energies  into  healthy  channels  of  thought  and  con- 
duct. 

With  the  properly  developed  individual  the  intellectual  functions 
and  physiological  processes  are  so  under  his  control  that  he  can 
by  practice  direct  any  selected  one  as  he  chooses.  The  true  pur- 
pose of  education  is  to  teach  the  individual  self-control  and  a  just 
consideration  for  the  welfare  of  others. 

The  sexual  function,  of  the  natural  instincts,  is  second  only  to 
the  instinct  of  self-preservation.  In  some  individuals  it  is  per- 
haps the  strongest  of  all  the  bodily  appetites  and  passions.  The 
healthy,  vigorous  glow  of  sexuality,  when  not  debased  by  sensuality, 
is  the  crowning  glory  of  a  man  or  woman.  We  have  but  one  energy, 
and  this  is  expressed  by  the  individual  in  every  manifestation  of 
his  life's  conduct,  whether  physical,  intellectual,  or  emotional  in 
character. 

Scott l  has  well  said  that  "purity  is  the  crown  of  all  real  manli- 
ness, and  the  vigorous  and  robust,  who  by  repression  of  evil  have 
preserved  their  sexual  potency,  make  the  best  husbands  and  fathers, 
and  they  are  the  direct  benefactors  of  the  race  by  begetting  progeny 
who  are  not  predisposed  to  sexual  violation  and  bodily  and  mental 
degeneracy. ' ' 

The  tendency  of  rational  medicine  is  getting  more  and  more 
toward  the  prevention  as  well  as  the  cure  of  disease,  insanity,  and 
degeneracy  in  its  numerous  manifestations.  Educators  and  teachers 
are  at  last  awakening  to  the  importance  of  defending  ignorance 
and  innocence  against  morbid  moral  processes,  as  well  as  to  pro- 
tect them  from  smallpox  and  yellow  fever;  so  the  day  is  not  re- 
mote when  children  will  be  taught  in  our  common  schools  to  re- 
gard the  care  and  preservation  of  their  bodies  as  paramount  to 
their  lessons  in  English  grammar  and  arithmetic. 

Monogamy  will  modify  all  excesses  in  the  sexual  line,  and  right 
thinking  will  eliminate  all  habits  which  may  be  destructive  to  an 
individual  or  against  the  best  interest  of  the  community. 

Aside  from   a  condition  of  lowered  vitality  that  is  frequently 


1  Scott:      The  Sexual  Instinct. — K.   B.   Treat    &   Co. 


342  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

maintained  in  both  men  and  women  by  such  indiscretions,  emotional 
religious  feelings,  too  much  social  excitement  among  enthusiastic, 
exuberant  young  people;  overeating,  excessive  chewing  and  smok- 
ing of  tobacco,  whisky  and  beer  drinking,  worry  and  overanxiety 
about  business;  anger,  envy,  jealousy,  and  fear;  irregular  habits 
of  sleep,  work,  and  recreation — all  contribute  their  quota  to  hold  the 
individual  in  check  and  prevent  the  highest  and  best  expression  of 
individuality  in  body  and  mind. 

A  lady  who  had  emerged  from  an  excitable  emotional  religious 
revival,  weak  and  nervous,  after  being  sick  for  a  day,  was  anxious 
to  return,  and  when  I  admonished  her  of  the  danger  of  such  dis- 
sipation, and  remarked  that  death  itself  was  not  infrequent  as  a 
result  of  such  indiscretions,  she  answered  suavely  that  "it  would 
be  a  lovely  way  to  die." 

In  the  same  spirit  another  patient,  whom  I  advised  to  abandon 
the  use  of  tobacco  and  whisky  if  he  expected  to  get  well,  replied 
that  he  would  rather  not  live  if  he  had  to  give  them  up,  that  he 
had  reached  the  age  when  his  sexual  powers  had  failed,  and  he 
now  felt  that  these  offered  all  that  went  to  make  life  worth  while. 

It  is  hard  to  realize,  until  one  stops  to  consider  this  subject, 
in  what  complete  slavery  many  human  beings  are  held  by  their  ap- 
petites and  uncontrolled  emotions  and  passions. 

A  country  parson  once  sent  for  me,  and  very  seriously  and  con- 
fidentially explained  that  the  physicians  of  his  town  did  not  under- 
stand his  case;  that  he  had  for  years  suffered  so  much  with  indi- 
gestion until  he  was  unable  to  do  mental  work,  and,  though  he 
"loved  his  work  and  was  completely  in  the  hands  of  the  Lord," 
that  it  troubled  him  to  be  unable  to  prepare  sermons  that  would 
hold  the  people.  He  was  six  feet  high  and  weighed  two  hundred 
and  eighty  pounds.  After  he  had  related  his  tale  of  woe,  I  in- 
formed him  that  the  external  evidence  in  his  case  did  not  coincide 
with  his  interpretation ;  that,  instead  of  suffering  with  indigestion, 
he  gave  every  evidence  of  digesting  and  assimilating  too  much 
food.  Then,  turning  to  his  wife,  I  asked  how  much  he  ate  for 
breakfast  as  compared  with  the  other  members  of  the  family,  and 
she  answered  as  much  as  herself  and  their  four  children  combined. 
I  reasoned  with  him,  and  explained  how  it  was  impossible  for  his 


CONSERVATION    OF   ENERGY.  343 

stomach  and  his  intellect  each  to  perform  the  highest  function  at 

le  same  time,  and  outlined  a  reasonable  diet,  advised  that  he  walk 
jn  miles  a  day  and  cut  his  own  wood,  work  in  his  garden,  and  take 
such  other  physical  exercise  as  would  reduce  his  weight.  He  took 
my  advice  kindly,  and  two  weeks  afterward  informed  me  that  he 
felt  like  a  new  man.  He  had  been  so  completely  occupied  in  get- 
ting individuals  to  "save  their  souls,"  that  he  had  forgotten  the 
present  salvation  of  his  own  character  sufficient  to  control  his 
bodily  appetites. 

I  was  once  introduced  to  an  aged  physician,  then  ninety-one 
years  old,  who  had  just  returned  from  a  six-mile  ride  on  horse- 
back on  a  visit  to  a  patient  in  the  country.  I  inquired  why  he  did 
not  leave  such  trips  to  "the  boys"  in  the  profession,  pointing  to 
two  physicians  who  were  themselves  between  sixty  and  seventy 
years  old.  I  shall  never  forget  his  answer.  He  died  of  pneu- 
monia several  months  afterward,  but  that  answer  of  his  contained 
a  fine  lecture  on  psychotherapeutics.  His  reply  was:  "I  don't 
want  to  die.  Don't  you  know  that  as  long  as  a  man  is  at  work  he 
is  thinking,  and  that  when  he  is  working  and  thinking  he  is  using 
his  brain  cells,  and  that  the  brain  cells,  kept  in  constant  use,  give 
strength  to  every  part  of  his  body?" 

For  sixty-five  years  this  physician  had  kept  in  harness,  fre- 
quently making  trips  on  horseback  for  sixty  miles  in  the  early  part 
of  his  professional  career,  and  he  furnished  a  good  illustration 
of  the  salutary  effect  of  continuous  exercise  and  useful  employ- 
ment. 

The  only  safe  way  to  control  our  emotions,  appetites,  and  pas- 
sions is  to  direct  our  energies  into  channels  of  wholesome  and 
useful  effort,  whether  it  be  physical  or  mental  effort.  The  result 
is  strengthening  to  both  mind  and  body,  provided  it  is  done  cheer- 
fully and  with  a  purpose. 

The  emotional  part  of  our  nature,  when  guided  by  reason,  is 
expressed  in  enthusiasm,  a  quality  which  is  essential  to  success  in 
any  line  of  effort.  Be  it  man  or  woman,  the  continuous  and  per- 
sistent pursuit  of  some  steady  work  or  useful  employment  will 
react  as  health  and  strength-producing  factors  to  both  mind  and 
body.  This  very  effort  conserves  our  energy,  guides  and  controls 


344  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

the  emotions,  and  cultivates  all  the  positive  qualities  of  human 
character.  The  proficiency  which  comes  from  continuous  persistent 
effort  achieves  a  self-reliance  that  eradicates  fear. 

Worry  is  only  our  own  recognition  of  our  inadequacy  or  inability 
to  be  equal  to  the  exigencies  of  life.  It  shows  a  lack  of  self-re- 
liance, without  which  man  is  but  the  plaything  of  chance,  a  puppet 
of  circumstances. 

Envy,  and  anger,  and  jealousy  are  all  characteristics  of  weakness 
and  incompetency.  Such  negative  qualities  can  find  no  place  in 
the  life  and  character  of  a  real  man  or  woman. 

There  is  a  retroactive  degeneracy  of  wealth  which,  as  history 
has  shown,  proves  the  destroyer  of  the  idle,  the  proud,  and  the 
self-conceited. 

The  sooner  every  human  being  can  learn  that  the  real  elements 
that  create  health,  and  strength,  and  happiness,  and  success  in 
life  are  inherent  within  him,  and  that  reason  should  be  the  guiding 
star  by  which  he  should  direct,  and  control,  and  develop,  and  use 
the  potentialities  within  his  own  organism,  the  sooner  will  he  real- 
ize that  upon  him  alone  depends  the  responsibility  of  so  living 
that  he  can  maintain  sufficient  resistive  power  in  the  cells  of  his 
organism  for  health  to  become  a  habit,  and  happiness  and  success 
the  rule  of  his  .life. 

We  have  only  a  few  medicines  that  can  be  relied  upon  in  their 
application  to  the  treatment  of  disease,  and  in  some  instances  it 
is  really  remarkable  how  well  people  get  along  without  any  medi- 
cine at  all. 

In  one  little  city  of  25,000  inhabitants  the  physicians  informed 
me  that  a  nonmedical  practitioner  in  that  town  was  doing  more 
work  than  any  two  physicians  in  the  place.  He  had  taught  school 
for  a  good  many  years,  and  had  gained  quite  a  fund  of  general 
information  in  regard  to  psychotherapeutics,  dietetics,  hydro- 
therapy,  massage,  exercise,  etc.,  which,  coupled  with  a  good  per- 
sonality, enabled  him  to  practice  with  remarkable  success. 

Now,  I  am  not  a  therapeutic  nihilist.  We  should  use  medicine 
when  indicated,  and  there  are  conditions  in  which  it  is  absolutely 
indispensable,  but  in  the  great  majority  of  cases  that  come  to  us 
for  aid  we  should  display  more  confidence  in  our  patient's  brain 


CONSERVATION   OF   ENERGY.  345 

plasm  and  in  the  recuperative  powers  inherent  in  the  cells  of  his 
organism  under  proper  conditions  to  re-establish  a  condition  of 
health. 

Without  the  co-operation  of  the  patient,  it  matters  not  what  be 
our  therapeutic  measures,  we  are  handicapped  very  seriously.  It 
is  not  what  we  do  for  the  patient  with  materia  medica  agencies  that 
is  the  greatest  factor  in  therapeutics,  but  the  environment  which 
we  create  for  him  and  what  we  get  him  perhaps  unconsciously 
to  do  for  himself.  If  his  brain  cells  do  not  respond  to  the  sense 
impressions  made  upon  them  so  as  to  get  him  to  act  upon  and  exe- 
cute our  ideas  both  consciously  and  subconsciously,  then  may  we 
expect  very  little  benefit  to  be  derived  from  the  administration  of 
medicine.  It  is  what  he  eats  and  what  he  drinks,  how  he  acts  and 
the  way  he  thinks,  together  with  breathing  and  relaxation,  fresh  air, 
pure  water,  work,  and  sunshine,  that  are  the  real  helps  to  get  a  sick 
man  well. 

Thousands  of  the  ablest  physicians  place  little  or  no  confidence 
in  more  than  a  few  medicines  aside  from  the  confidence  that  the 
patient  has  in  their  efficacy.  Is  it  not  time  that  we  should  deal 
with  our  patients  squarely  and  honestly,  and,  while  giving  medicine 
when  indicated,  either  for  its  physiological  or  psychological  effects, 
let  them  know  that  the  real  source  of  health  and  happiness  depends 
upon  their  own  control  and  direction  of  their  conscious  and  uncon- 
scious psychic  activities  into  normal,  healthful  lines  of  thought  and 
conduct  ?  Where  an  individual  needs  such  advice,  and  the  majority 
of  them  do,  I  should  deem  myself  untrue  as  his  physician  and 
false  to  my  Hippocratic  oath,  did  I  not  express  my  honest  convic- 
tions relative  to  the  real  elements  that  contribute  to  his  health  and 
well-being. 

Thousands  of  American  people  today  are  magnificent  examples 
of  what  intelligent,  systematic,  physical  exercise  can  do  in  the  way 
of  developing  a  vigorous,  robust,  healthy  body.  A  large  percentage 
of  our  most  successful  physicians  are  physical  athletes  as  the  re- 
sult of  intelligent  physical  training. 

As  yet  not  one  person  out  of  five  knows  how  to  breathe,  or  real- 
izes that  sufficient  oxygen  taken  into  his  lungs  from  the  inspired 
air  is  as  important  as  the  food  that  he  eats. 


346  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

Water — pure,  wholesome  water — as  a  functional  stimulant,  a 
toxin  eliminant,  and  health-producing  agent,  has  not  occupied  the 
place  it  deserves  in  our  therapeutic  armamentarium,  or  in  the  ap- 
preciation of  the  people,  whose  privilege  it  is  to  use  it  without  our 
advice. 

Most  of  our  people  still  overtax  their  nervous  systems  with  an 
excess  of  meats  as  an  article  of  diet,  and  thus  maintain  a  lowered 
power  of  both  mind  and  body  on  account  of  such  indiscretions  and 
excesses.  The  tests  at  Yale  University,  made  by  Professor  Irving 
Fisher,  have,  proved  beyond  all  question  that  "a  low  protein,  non- 
flesh  or  nearly  nonflesh  dietary,"  is  conducive  to  a  greater  mental 
and  physical  endurance  than  the  ordinary  American  diet. 

The  use  of  the  corset  as  a  fruitful  source  of  disease  yet  needs  to 
be  impressed  upon  the  minds  of  our  women. 

Intemperance  or  lack  of  self-control,  and  the  use  of  reason  in 
eating,  dress,  business  activities,  religious  worship,  and  sexual  mat- 
ters, and  emotions  of  all  kinds  and  passions  of  every  description, 
should  all  be  kept  in  mind  by  the  physician  who  intends  to  make 
such  suggestions  as  will  redound  to  the  greatest  benefit  of  his  pa- 
tients. Self-control  is  humanity 's  greatest,  highest,  noblest  achieve- 
ment. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 
ROUGHING  IT  AS  A  MEANS  OF  HEALTH. 

Disease  is  a  condition  where  the  cells  of  a  part  or  of  the  entire 
organism  do  not  properly  perform  their  function.  At  any  rate,  it 
denotes  an  absence  of  health.  These  are  only  relative  terms,  for 
what  might  be  a  condition  of  reasonably  good  health  for  one  in- 
dividual would  be  so  far  below  the  normal  standard  of  another 
as  to  be  considered  disease  for  him. 

A  problem  that  confronts  every  human  being  is  how  to  maintain 
the  highest  possible  degree  of  resistive  power  in  the  cells  of  his 
organism  so  as  to  render  them  invulnerable  to  pathogenic  germs  and 
other  etiological  factors  of-  disease.  This  can  not  always  be  ac- 
complished by  tonics,  reconstructive  agents,  etc.  In  many  in- 
stances it  is  simply  a  question  of  getting  the  individual  to  conform 
to  those  conditions  and  habits  of  life  which  bring  an  increased  de- 
gree of  resistive  power  to  the  cells  of  his  organism  as  a  consequence. 
Such  habits  can  often  be  brought  about  as  the  result  of  an  idea  put 
strongly  into  the  brain  plasm  of  your  patient.  Before  you  can 
succeed  in  putting  such  an  idea  sufficiently  strong  to  get  your  pa- 
tient to  act  upon  it  so  as  to  change  his  habits  of  thought  and  con- 
duct, you  must  believe  in  the  efficacy  of  the  means  to  secure  the  de- 
sired end.  Confidence  begets  confidence,  and  conviction  creates 
conviction ;  courage  begets  courage,  and  health  begets  health. 

So,  if  a  physician  is  weak,  discouraged,  and  tender-footed,  he 
must  get  right  himself  before  he  can  get  others  to  act  upon  an 
idea,  either  consciously  or  subconsciously.  To  bring  about  this 
end,  try  "roughing  it"  as  a  means  of  health,  and  get  your  pa- 
tients to  do  likewise. 

The  finest  reconstructive  agent  at  our  command  is  an  idea  con- 
veyed to  your  patient  that  will  create  hope,  expectancy,  confidence, 
and  optimism.  All  these  encourage  anabolism  or  constructive 
metamorphosis,  and  this  is  doubly  true  when  it  moves  one  out  into 

347 


348  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

the  sunshine  and  fresh  air,  and  enforces  exercise  and  deep  breath- 
ing, resulting  in  sound  sleep,  good  appetite,  and  increased  diges- 
tion and  assimilation.  It  means  new  blood  for  the  patient,  and  all 
these  contribute  to  health. 

Along  with  this  comes  a  rest  from  the  routine  path  of  life,  the 
dropping  of  business  cares  and  perplexities,  and  a  chance  to  catch 
something  of  the  inspiration  that  comes  from  associating  with  birds 
and  wild  flowers,  trees  and  rocks,  and  running  streams.  The 
psychic  and  physical  effect  for  the  good  of  the  individual  of  all 
such  measures  can  not  be  overestimated. 

We  are  told  that  one  death  out  of  ten  in  the  world  today  is  the 
result  of  tuberculosis.  It  is  not  so.  The  people  who  die  infected 
with  tubercle  bacilli  do  so  because  they  do  not  live  so  as  to  main- 
tain that  high  degree  of  resistive  power  to  enable  the  cells  of  their 
organism  to  withstand  the  onslaught  of  this  pathogenic  enemy. 

In  offices  and  street  cars,  in  places  of  business  and  on  the  street, 
we  in  cities  are  exposed  to  the  tubercle  infection  every  day  of  our 
lives.  We  do  not 'contract  the  disease  because  we  are  alive  enough 
to  resist  its  invasion.  The  factors  of  disease  are  here  and  ever  will 
be.  It  is  up  to  us  to  learn  how  to  live. 

No  better  illustration  of  the  value  of  roughing  it  can  be  cited 
than  where  thousands  and  thousands  of  individuals  with  this 
disease  are  yearly  going  to  the  high  altitudes  along  the  range  of 
the  Rockies  and  dropping  all  home  comforts,  having  the  will  and 
courage  to  face  hardships  in  the-  West,  living  out-of-doors  in  open 
tents,  and  in  this  way  making  the  fight  for  their  lives.  The  very 
decision  to  do  that  which  they  believe  will  result  in  their  recovery 
is  the  important  essential  which,  favored  by  a  dry  high  altitude  and 
the  conditions  for  living  in  the  open  air  and  sunshine,  and  en- 
couraged by  the  optimism  and  cheerfulness  of  those  who  have  been 
in  that  section  long  enough  to  have  dropped  the  title  of  "tender- 
foot, ' '  brings  about  a  restoration  of  health. 

Life  is  a  struggle  with  us  all.  In  order  to  live,  we  must  dare  to 
be.  We  need  sufficient  resistive  power  in  the  cells  of  our  organism 
to  combat  the  etiological  factors  of  disease,  and  this  can  be  secured 
only  by  conforming  to  the  requirements  for  creating  and  maintain- 


ROUGHING    IT    AS   A    MEANS   OF    HEALTH.  349 

ing  that  high  standard  of  healthfulness  that  will  secure  this 
quality. 

In  all  classes  of  practice,  medicine  is  only  an  aid.  With  its  as- 
sistance the  individual's  chances  of  recovery,  when  sick,  depend 
upon  the  natural  recuperative  powers  of  the  cells  of  his  organism. 

In  thousands  of  instances  during  warfare  individuals  have  left 
their  homes  of  comfort  and  luxurious  ease,  and  for  years  have  en- 
dured the  hardships  of  camp  life  and  the  stress  of  battle,  on  scanty 
food  and  insufficient  bedding  without  shelter,  only  to  return  after 
the  campaign  strong  and  robust,  and  in  a  perfect  state  of  health. 

During  the  cowboy  days  many  young  men,  reared  in  wealth  and 
affluence,  went  as  physical  weaklings  to  the  western  plains,  and, 
astride  a  broncho,  followed  a  herd  of  cattle  and  endured  the  hard- 
ships of  camp  life  and  simple  diet  until  they  were  rewarded  with 
health  and  vigor  of  mind  and  body. 

The  very  process  of  learning  to  be  content  with  little  to  make  one 
comfortable  and  satisfied  with  extemporized  substitutes  cultivates  a 
mental  and  physical  stoicism  which,  as  a  means  of  health,  is  hard  to 
overestimate. 

We  watch  with  interest  a  game  of  baseball  or  football  on  the  hot- 
test day  of  summer,  and  wonder  how  the  participants  can  so  ignore 
the  heat  and  enjoy  such  sport;  such  "  roughing  it"  brings  its  reward 
and  produces  physical  athletes. 

At  a  temperature  of  110  degrees  in  the  shade  I  watched  a  gang 
of  men  working  for  hours  and  hours  in  the  hot  sun  engaged  in 
laborious  manual  labor  with  pick  and  shovel.  This  acquired 
physical  resistance  came  "by  roughing  it,"  and  the  men  were 
healthy  and  happy. 

A  month  after  the  earthquake  of  San  Francisco,  when  a  hundred 
thousand  people  were  in  improvised  tents  and  on  plain,  coarse  food, 
the  health  of  that  city  was  officially  reported  as  being  better  than 
at  any  time  in  its  history.  Neurasthenics  who  must  have  a  cup 
of  coffee  with  snowflake  crackers  in  bed  before  rising  in  the  morn- 
ing were,  after  one  month  of  "roughing  it,"  enjoying  a  breakfast 
of  onions  and  beans. 

The  health  and  vigor  that  rewarded  the  early  settlers  in  the 


350  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

pioneer  days  of  our  country,  when  they  were  compelled  to  labor 
hard,  live  simply,  and  have  but  little,  also  has  its  lesson. 

To  the  thoughtful  observer  it  is  plain  that  our  artificial  methods 
of  living  at  the  present  time  are  not  conducive  to  the  highest  de- 
velopment of  manhood  and  womanhood. 

When  education  interferes  with  physical  development,  it  strikes  a 
weakening  blow  at  the  quality  of  the  brain  plasm  of  the  individual, 
an  element  that  must  be  kept  at  a  high  standard  to  attain  the 
best  results  in  mind  and  body  building. 

It  has  often  been  observed  that  the  most  successful  men  in  all 
professions  and  in  all  lines  of  business  in  our  large  cities  have 
been,  and  are,  those  who  were  reared  in  the  less  populous  towns 
and  rural  districts,  where  those  natural  conditions  of  simple  living, 
fresh  air,  pure  water  and  sunshine,  quiet  surroundings  and  whole- 
some food,  exercise  and  employment,  furnished  the  environment 
under  which  the  highest  standard  of  physical  development  could 
be  produced.  Such  conditions  favored  the  growth  and  develop- 
ment of  a  quality  of  brain  plasm  that  manifested  itself  in  the  facility 
with  which  the  individual  was  enabled  to  withstand  the  arduous 
duties  and  responsibilities  amid  the  more  complex  environment 
of  city  life. 

The  boy  reared  in  the  fields,  well  acquainted  with  the  woods  and 
familiar  with  the  chop  ax  and  the  wood  pile,  thought  he  was  hav- 
ing a  hard  time,  but  we  know  better  now. 

The  country  girl  that  rides  horseback  to  school,  carries  a  cold 
lunch  in  a  bucket,  and  grows  up  among  the  birds  and  flowers,  with 
cheeks  painted  by  fresh  air  and  sunshine,  has  a  mental  and  physical 
equipment  for  life  that  far  surpasses  the  accomplishments  of  her 
more  delicately  formed  city  sister.  Let  this  be  supplemented  with 
a  liberal  education,  and  she  is  prepared  to  withstand  the  exigencies 
of  life  under  any  and  all  conditions. 

Yes, ' '  said  one  physician,  ' '  granting  that  all  you  say  about  the 
value  of  physiological  and  mental  therapeutics  be  true,  if  we  put 
the  laity  in  possession  of  such  knowledge,  we  physicians  are  likely 
to  be  out  of  a  job. ' ' 

To  entertain  for  one  moment  such  a  selfish  idea  or  to  give  ex- 


ROUGHING   IT    AS   A    MEANS   OF    HEALTH.  351 

pression  to  such  sentiments  is  not  in  accord  with  the  spirit  that 
actuates  the  leaders  of  our  high  and  noble  profession. 

We  are  rapidly  learning  to  appropriate  every  possible  means  of 
maintaining  a  high  degree  of  physical  resistance  in  the  cells  of 
the  organism  as  a  means  of  enabling  it  to  withstand  the  stress  and 
strain  of  modern  life. 

The  distance  from  the  primitive  life  of  our  forefathers  is  too 
short  to  suddenly  abandon  the  habits  whereby  they  developed  muscle 
and  sinew.  The  most  important  factors  in  the  maintenance  of 
health  are  not  on  sale  in  a  drug  store.  An  occasional  return  for 
a  short  period  to  the  primitive  vocations — toil,  manual  labor,  hunt- 
ing, and  fishing  in  the  places  remote  from  the  dust  and  noise  of 
the  city — exchanging  the  freedom  of  camp  life,  fresh  air,  and  sun- 
shine for  the  confinement  of  office  and  the  responsibilities  of  busi- 
ness, are  being  made  every  year  by  thousands  of  our  American 
physicians  in  the  effort  to  maintain  the  highest  degree  of  physical 
resistance  and  mental  efficiency,  and  we  should  never  forget  the 
beneficence  of  such  measures  in  prescribing  for  our  patients. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 
PERSONALITY  AS  A  FACTOR  IN  THERAPEUTICS. 

The  personality  of  a  physician  is  an  important  asset  in  the  makeup 
of  his  professional  equipment. 

The  achievement  of  personality  is  the  goal  sought  by  every  one 
beginning  the  study  of  medicine,  and  everything  pertaining  to 
inedical  thought,  colleges,  books,  hospitals,  clinics,  operations, 
laboratories,  dissecting  rooms,  class  associates,  quiz  masters,  in- 
structors, and  professors,  all  combined,  furnish  the  environing 
and  educational  factors  which  collectively  go  to  convert  the  aspirant 
into  the  type  of  genus  1/wmo  known  as  a  physician. 

Aside  from  his  scientific  medical  training,  the  personality  of  a 
physician  is  the  greatest  factor  in  the  makeup  of  his  professional 
armamentarium.  So  much  so  is  this  true  that  we  often  hear  the 
expression  that  "the  physician  is  born,  not  made."  Such  an  ex- 
pression usually  implies  that  there  is  an  inner  quality  of  person- 
ality, which  manifests  itself  in  the  dealing  of  a  physician  with  his 
patients,  that  does  not  exist  equally  in  all  men  equally  trained  in 
professional  knowledge.  There  seems  to  be  an  inner  spring  or 
quality  of  character  that  counts  when  such  men  are  put  to  the  test 
in  the  office,  or  at  the  bedside,  in  daily  intercourse  with  others,  on 
any  and  all  occasions,  which  is  a  sine  qua  non  to  the  successful 
practice  of  medicine. 

There  is  in  every  one  a  quality  of  personality  that  either  attracts 
or  repels  others.  It  is  not  necessarily  an  accompaniment  of  any 
special  type,  or  physique,  or  nervous  organization.  It  is  found  in 
men  of  small  build  and  of  neurotic  type  as  well  as  in  those  that 
are  robust,  phlegmatic,  and  heavy.  Such  men  frequently  make 
serious  blunders  in  their  professional  work,  but  still  they  hold  the 
people. 

It  has  been  a  matter  of  personal  experience,  in  my  former  work 
among  the  medical  profession,  that  I  have  frequently  grasped  the 

352 


PERSONALITY    AS   A   FACTOR    IN   THERAPEUTICS.  353 

hand  of  a  stranger  and  instantly  felt  that  I  had  found  a  warm 
personal  friend  before  we  had  exchanged  any  more  than  a  mere 
formal  greeting.  On  the  other  hand,  I  have  frequently  felt  so 
repulsed  at  the  first  glance  of  a  physician  that  I  refused  to  ac- 
knowledge him  as  a  man  whom  I  wished  to  meet. 

Upon  one  occasion  I  called  upon  a  physician  of  high  professional 
attainment  wht)se  conduct,  when  I  approached  him,  was  discourte- 
ous in  the  extreme.  I  looked  him  squarely  in  the  face  for  a  moment, 
and  extended  my  hand,  saying,  in  a  quiet  monotone,  "goodby, 
Doctor."  The  effect  of  this  upon  him  needs  no  comment.  He 
shook  hands  with  me,  but  learned  a  lesson.  In  his  reception  room 
he  had  but  one  patient,  and  that  one  appeared  to  be  an  old  stand- 
by. This  was  no  surprise  to  me,  for  that  physician  had  given  me 
a  taste  of  his  quality — I  never  cared  to  see  him  again,  and  so  it 
was  with  his  patients. 

From  this  office  I  went  to  see  another  physician,  in  the  same 
specialty,  who  was  courteous  and  human,  really  showing  me  more 
deference  than  I  felt  that  I  deserved.  He  had  won  a  high  place 
in  the  esteem  of  his  colleagues  by  hard  work  in  his  home  city,  and 
his  office  was  full  of  patients.  The  treatment  accorded  a  stranger 
by  that  physician  was  a  sample  of  the  quality  of  the  personality 
of  the  man — such  a  quality  as  the  people  liked — and  he  is  doing 
a  great  work. 

Invariably  those  of  the  medical  profession  who  are  competent 
men,  and  who  possess  this  happy  streak  of  personality  above  illus- 
trated, are  making  a  success  of  their  work. 

A  little  display  of  those  qualities  typified  by  the  great  religious 
reformer  about  two  thousand  years  ago — kindness,  sincerity,  sym- 
pathy, earnestness,  fearlessness,  bravery,  magnanimity,  and  al- 
truism— is  an  inestimable  element  in  the  personality  of  the  physi- 
cian. It  helps  to  get  control  of  people— not  by  force — and  better 
enables  him  to  put  them  in  possession  of  themselves. 

Here  is  the  clue  to  the  explanation  of  that  indefinable  psychic 
quality  that  the  successful  physician  carries  with  him  which 
proves  a  power  in  therapeutics,  and  this  is  manifested  all  uncon- 
sciously by  him  in  every  move  of  his  life.  It  begets  the  confidence 


354  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

and  trust  of  his  patient,  and  the  respect  and  co-operation  that  is  a 
most  essential  factor  in  the  successful  treatment  of  any  disease. 

Especially  is  this  quality  in  the  physician  necessary  in  the  treat- 
ment of  enlightened  and  self-respecting  people.  It  begets  a  recipro- 
cation of  that  respect  which  such  people  feel  is  due  them.  They 
positively  refuse  to  be  driven,  but  it  is  only  an  evidence  of  their 
high  intelligence  when  they  are  willing  to  be  led  for  their  own  good 
by  the  skillful  direction  of  a  cultured,  competent,  conscientious 
physician. 

A  sensible  display  of  tact  and  diplomacy  will  often  enable  a 
physician  to  win  the  confidence  of  a  patient,  and  thus  secure  the 
co-operation  so  essentially  necessary  for  the  best  results,  when  being 
too  blunt  and  abrupt  would  render  him  utterly  helpless. 

To  see  one  physician  so  manage  a  little  fellow  as  to  get  him  to 
submit  to  the  skillful  dilatation  and  treatment  of  a  suppurative 
dacryocystitis  with  hardly  a  whimper  by  his  firmness,  and  kindness, 
and  tactful  persuasion,  where  another  would  become  nervous  and  ex- 
cited, and  spend  a  much  longer  time  in  accomplishing  this  result, 
his  patient  crying  vehemently  and  suffering  a  needless  amount  of 
pain  on  account  of  his  resistance,  is  an  illustration  of  what  per- 
sonality means  in  a  certain  class  of  work. 

It  is  a  great  help  to  a  physician  to  be  able  to  get  hold  of  people 
and  use  them  to  help  themselves  to  get  well.  We  all  help  or 
hinder  the  recovery  of  our  patients,  far  more  than  many  realize,  by 
the  way  we  deal  with  them.  "We  unconsciously  use  suggestive  thera- 
peutics at  every  step  in  our  routine  work. 

People  buy  goods  of  the  merchant  they  like,  the  groceryman  they 
like,  the  dairyman  they  like.  In  all  trades  this  personal  factor 
is  taken  into  account.  A  dry  goods  clerk  brings  a  better  price  be- 
cause people  like  him — he  knows  how  to  deal  with  people  and  to  help 
them  to  suit  themselves  in  their  purchases — but  more  than  in  any 
other  department  of  life  does  the  personality  of  the  physician  count 
in  helping  people  to  get  well.  A  patient  can  not  get  into  your 
office  and  walk  out  without  your  personality  having  made  some 
mark  upon  him.  There  are  people  in  whose  presence  you  are  al- 
ways at  your  very  best,  and  for  whom  you  can  render  the  best  pro- 
fessional service. 


PERSONALITY    AS   A    FACTOR    IN    THERAPEUTICS.  355 

It  is  a  recognized  psychological  law  that  we  become  like  those 
whom  we  habitually  admire.  Thus  we  become  a  part  of  all  with 
whom  wre  have  associated  during  our  existence.  In  all  of  our  ex- 
perience with  literature  and  personal  association  this  law  continu- 
ally operates,  so  that  all  men  are  reproductions  of  other  men. 

In  all  sections  of  the  country  are  neurologists  who,  from  constant 
association  with  a  certain  class  of  patients,  seem  to  have  become 
the  living  embodiment  of  all  the  objectionable  mental  and  phys- 
ical characteristics  of  their  patients.  A  patient  who  had  twice 
been  to  see  a  physician  of  that  type  remarked  that  he  felt  worse 
after  each  visit,  and  did  not  care  to  return. 

Another  neurologist,  who  was  himself  the  personification  of 
physical  strength,  mental  vigor,  and  optimism,  remarked  to  me  that 
he  never  felt  as  though  he  had  done  his  duty  unless  he  sent  his 
patient  out  of  his  office  feeling  better  for  having  come  to  see  him. 
It  is  needless  to  remark  that  he  is  one  of  the  most  successful  men 
in  his  specialty  in  the  profession  today. 

The  reader  will  pardon  me  if  I  seem  critical  or  personal  in  my 
remarks  in  this  chapter,  but  the  importance  of  the  subject  at  hand 
is  such  that  I  should  deem  my  effort  futile  did  I  not  drive  home 
the  point  under  consideration.  Only  my  experience  and  the  re- 
sults obtained  by  careful  observation  of  the  personal  factor  in 
therapeutics,  and  the  encouragement  of  physicians  who  have  also 
personally  tested  these  methods,  give  me  the  courage  to  express  my 
honest  convictions  at  all  hazards. 

I  fully  realize  that  the  hard  knocks  and  criticism  that  may  be 
fired  at  me  will  only  serve  to  educate  the  profession  in  the  sane, 
rational  use  of  the  measures  advocated,  and,  if  such  be  the  case, 
my  efforts  will  not  have  been  in  vain. 

It  is  a  great  thing  to  be  able  to  make  a  hair-splitting  diagnosis, 
the  correctness  of  which  is  infallible,  and  I  shall  unceasingly  strive 
to  attain  such  proficiency. 

It  may  also  be  a  great  satisfaction,  and  it  is  of  unquestionable 
benefit  to  the  physician  who  can  do  it,  to  give  a  minute  and  de- 
tailed delineation  and  description  of  the  pathology  of  a  disease  to 
the  satisfaction  of  his  professional  associates,  but  such  an  elucida- 
tion is  never  of  value  to  the  patient. 


356  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

Physicians  themselves  become  the  easy  victims  of  any  disease  as 
soon  as  they  become  conscious  of  the  seriousness  and  gravity  of  the 
diagnosis  rendered  by  their  colleagues  in  attendance.  Their  very 
knowledge  of  its  etiology  and  pathology  renders  them  unduly  self- 
conscious  of  their  condition,  and  such  a  self -consciousness  gives  rise 
to  morbid  mental  states  that  inhibit  the  normal  physiological  proc- 
esses, prevent  sleep,  and  seriously  retard  recovery. 

When  I  see  a  physician  sick  and  a  half  dozen  of  his  learned  col- 
leagues lined  up  around  him,  all  rendering  him  more  self-con- 
scious of  the  seriousness  of  his  condition,  I  wish  that  only  one  of 
them  had  been  called,  and  that  he  possessed  those  qualities  of  per- 
sonality that,  in  spite  of  the  physician's  knowledge  of  pathology, 
could  drive  back  those  existing  morbid  sense  impressions,  and  sub- 
stitute in  their  stead  mental  states  that  would  enable  him  to  put 
up  a  more  creditable  fight.  If  the  life  of  a  physician  is  worth  any- 
thing, the  end  would  justify  the  means.  So,  while  giving  due  ap- 
preciation to  scientific  professional  knowledge  and  training  in  pa- 
thology and  diagnosis,  what  is  of  far  greater  importance  is  that  we 
so  use  our  knowledge  as  to  help  our  patients  get  well. 

Every  visit  of  the  physician  is  an  opportunity  to  help  accomplish 
such  a  result,  and  here  is  where  the  personality  of  the  physician  is 
often  detrimental  or  helpful  to  the  recovery  of  the  patient.  The 
very  self-consciousness  induced  by  a  physician  at  his  visits,  and  the 
mental  states  which  follow  in  consequence  of  such  an  induced  self- 
consciousness,  are  the  deciding  factors  for  the  good  or  harm  of  the 
patient.  The  influence  of  personality  is  contagious.  We  set  up 
mental  states  in  others  around  our  patients  that  prove  helpful  or 
harmful  in  the  sick-room. 

Out  in  New  Mexico  a  young  man  walked  out  of  a  physician's 
office  looking  downcast  and  dejected,  with  lips  tightly  closed  and 
with  jerky  inspirations.  "A  lunger  up  against  it  good  and  hard," 
is  the  way  they  refer  to  such  patients  out  there. 

That  night  I  lectured  to  a  class  of  physicians,  and  the  next  day 
that  patient  went  out  of  the  same  office  with  a  smile  on  his  face 
and  a  bright,  animated  expression,  having  taken  the  first  step  to- 
ward recovery,  as  the  result  of  sense  impressions  or  suggestions 
strongly  made  upon  his  brain  cortex  by  his  physician.  He  ate 


PERSONALITY    AS    A    FACTOR   IN   THERAPEUTICS.  357 

more  that  day,  slept  well  that  night,  and  reported  that  he  had 
coughed  but  little,  was  not  so  nervous,  had  enjoyed  his  breakfast, 
and  felt  stronger — all  because  his  physician  had  the  personality  to 
exercise  the  egotism  and  altruism  to  look  him  squarely  in  the  face 
after  his  examination  and  say  to  him,  "I  have  some  good  news  to 
tell  you.  You  are  much  better  today.  Already  a  marked  improve- 
ment has  taken  place  in  your  condition,  but  you  will  be  very  much 
better  by  tomorrow.  You  will  enjoy  your  food  today,  have  a  good 
digestion,  sleep  well  tonight,  and  improve  every  day  from  now  on." 

Physicians  themselves  frequently  have  invalid  wives,  whose  in- 
validism  is  maintained  in  consequence  of  the  constant  association 
of  a  husband  whose  personality  depresses  them.  The  affection  dis- 
played by  such  men  for  their  wives  may  be  beautiful  to  contem- 
plate, but  the  accompanying  emotional,  sentimental  sympathy  is 
weakening  in  the  extreme. 

Reader,  if  you  happen  to  be  of  that  type  of  individual,  get  cured 
of  your  miserable  psychoneurotic  disease,  and  don't  live  as  a  para- 
site, infecting  the  lives  of  those  with  whom  you  associate.  My  pre- 
scription for  you  is  to  associate  and  amalgamate  with  the  wide- 
awake element  of  the  medical  profession  who  constitute  the  upper 
ten  percent  of  our  ranks.  Sages,  poets,  and  philosophers  of  all 
ages  have  repeated  this  message  to  the  world — that  men  and  women 
make  men  and  women. 

If  there  be  anything  of  value  in  these  expressions,  that  I  so 
feebly  echo  here,  they  are  but  the  reflex  of  impressions  that  as- 
sociation with  other  personalities  has  left  upon  my  cerebral  cortex. 
If  the  quality  of  my  brain  plasm  were  of  higher  standard,  and  my 
previous  environing  and  educational  advantages  had  been  more 
propitious,  my  opportunities  would  have  borne  better  fruit. 

We  all  have  our  capacity,  and,  under  equal  opportunities,  we 
can  react  upon  sense  impressions  or  suggestions  only  in  proportion 
to  our  qualifications. 

Whatever  be  our  deficiencies  as  a  result  of  heredity,  environment, 
and  education,  each  of  us  can  give  our  patients  of  our  highest, 
truest,  and  best  self  as  an  aid  to  their  recovery. 

Some  men  bring  a  reproach  upon  the  profession  on  account  of  a 
failure  to  exhibit  those  character  qualities  which  alone  constitute 


358  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

the  highest  type  of  professional  personality  and  manhood.  By  the 
correct  use  of  your  personality  as  a  factor  in  therapeutics,  you 
help  people  to  help  themselves. 

The  fear  that  some  physicians  have  that  people  will  object  to  the 
employment  of  these  methods  is  a  self-confessed  weakness.  They 
are  too  proud  to  express  a  favorable  opinion.  Fear  never  ac- 
complished anything  for  the  good  of  the  physician  or  his  patient. 
Some  of  the  best  friends  I  have  in  the  world  today  are  those  made 
in  my  efforts  to  get  them  to  control  themselves,  who  took  my  sug- 
gestions given  either  consciously  or  subconsciously,  and  through 
such  aid  learned  to  rely  upon  themselves. 

In  the  employment  of  suggestion,  both  with  and  without  hypno- 
tism, you  are  only  helping  your  patient  to  help  himself.  Yet,  many 
physicians  will  denounce  and  ridicule  it,  and  go  on  filling  neurotic 
patients  with  such  medicines  as  lessen  in  every  way  the  patient's 
self-reliance,  making  the  patient  absolutely  dependent  upon  them. 

A  man  who  practices  medicine  in  that  way  may  make  money,  but 
he  also  encourages  the  business  of  the  undertaker.  He  can  be  ex- 
cused only  upon  the  ground  of  ignorance,  and  deserves  to  be  placed 
in  the  class  of  the  quack  and  the  charlatan. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 
THE  ABUSE  OF  PERSONALITY. 

In  order  to  make  myself  understood,  I  will  give  you  an  illustra- 
tion of  how  personality  is  abused  in  the  practice  of  medicine,  and 
the  picture  here  presented  is  an  apt  illustration  of  the  conduct  of 
many  of  the  genera,!  practitioners,  who  do  not  take  into  considera- 
tion the  psychological  factor  in  therapeutics. 

All  observing  individuals  have  noticed  that  in  every  locality 
there  are  physicians  who  have  more  "very  sick"  patients  in  pro- 
portion to  their  patronage  than  others.  That  the  personality  of 
a  physician  is  frequently  the  prime  factor  in  producing  these  ' '  very 
sick  patients"  is  beyond  question. 

Here  is  an  illustration  of  the  usual  conduct  pursued  by  such  men 
in  the  treatment  of  an  ordinary  case  of  pneumonia,  a  disease  in 
which  the  correct  use  or  abuse  of  the  personality  of  the  attending 
physician,  more  than  in  any  other  acute  disease,  determines  the 
recovery  or  nonrecovery  of  a  patient. 

"Give  this  medicine  very  carefully,  and  watch  her  closely  until 
I  see  her  again.  I  will  call  this  evening." 

True  to  his  promise,  he  is  punctual  in  fulfilling  his  appointment, 
much  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  family,  who  anxiously  await  his 
coming.  During  the  day  the  sick  mother  has  grown  more  nervous, 
her  temperature  is  higher,  and  her  pulse  rate  is  faster.  She  is 
by  this  time  overanxious  about  her  condition,  and  this  in  turn  has 
made  her  family  extremely  anxious  about  her. 

The  physician  has,  by  his  conduct,  demeanor,  words,  and  action, 
made  a  strong  impression  upon  both  patient  and  family,  and  the 
fear  that  he  has  thus  implanted  into  the  minds  of  all  in  the  house- 
hold has  kept  up  a  depressing  environing  influence  which  has 
got  in  its  effective  work  upon  the  patient. 

The  lady  in  question  is  suffering  with  acute  pneumonia.  She 
feels  a  decided  pain  upon  breathing,  experiences  a  sense  of  suffoca- 

350 


360  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

tion,  and  the  paroxysms  of  coughing  have  rendered  her  decidedly 
conscious  of  her  illness,  and  now  the  physician  in  whom  she  has 
placed  her  trust  has  looked  serious  and  given  directions  in  a  way 
that  speaks  louder  than  words  in  unduly  exciting  her.  Not  one 
word  has  he  said  to  allay  her  anxiety,  soothe  her  mind,  assuage  her 
fears,  or  inspire  hope. 

Upon  his  second  examination  he  finds  his  patient  decidedly  worse, 
as  might  have  been  expected,  and  now  he  is  serious  sure  enough. 
His  fatalities  in  the  treatment  of  pneumonia  have  been  particularly 
,  large,  and  he  much  dreads  this  disease ;  and,  seeing  his  patient 
with  a  higher  fever,  a  more  rapid  pulse,  flushed  face,  more  anxious 
expression,  and  remembering  his  past  record  with  such  cases,  he 
makes  no  effort  to  conceal  his  gloomy  forebodings. 

Again  giving  directions  for  the  night,  he  starts  for  his  convey- 
ance, and  when  out  in  the  hall  the  members  of  the  anxious  family, 
who  have  followed  him,  turn  with  pleading  faces  and  inquire, 
"Doctor,  how  is  mother?" 

"Very  sick,  very  sick,"  is  his  reply.  "Watch  her  carefully  to- 
night. Keep  the  house  as  quiet  as  possible,  and,  if  she^ should  get 
worse  before  morning,  be  sure  to  call  me." 

Before  the  next  day  he  has  been  called,  for  his  patient  has  been 
unable  to  sleep,  and  from  his  point  of  view  a  hypodermic  of 
morphin  is  decidedly  indicated. 

On  and  on  this  management  goes,  and  if  finally  his  patient  re- 
covers after  two  weeks  of  severe  illness,  which  she  might  possibly 
have  done  in  spite  of  her  physician,  that  family  is  grateful  to  God 
and  the  doctor  for  having  "pulled  her  through." 

I  remember  once  going  to  see  a  lady  about  fifty-five  years  old, 
with  acute  pneumonia,  a  decided  congestion  of  the  lower  lobe  of 
the  right  lung,  and,  after  carefully  making  out  my  diagnosis  and 
prescribing  for  her  medicinally,  I  turned  to  the  patient  and  gave 
her  a  talk  about  as  follows:  "You  have  pneumonia,  Mrs.  Blank, 
but  only  a  mild  case ;  temperature  only  103.5°  F.,  but  a  good  pulse, 
and  everything  is  favorable  to  a  nice  recovery.  You  are  in  pain, 
but  a  hot  poultice  I  have  ordered  will  relieve  tha't  very  promptly. 
You  will  soon  get  comfortable  and  will  rest  well  tonight,  and  be 
feeling  much  better  tomorrow  when  I  see  you  again.  Now,  be  pa- 


THE   ABUSE   OF   PERSONALITY.  361 

tient,  and  in  from  seven  to  ten  days  you  will  be  well.  The  medicine 
prescribed  for  you  will  keep  you  comfortable,  strengthen  your  heart, 
keep  your  nerves  quiet,  steady,  and  strong,  and  all  will  be  well  with 
you." 

With  tears  of  gratitude  in  her  eyes,  she  answered,  "Oh,  Doctor, 
you  make  me  feel  like  I  am  well  already.  I  feared  that  I  had  pneu- 
monia and  felt  that  I  never  would  get  well." 

"You  are  going  to  get  well  all  right,"  said  I,  "going  along  nicely 
to  recovery.  Your  daughter  will  have  entire  charge  of  your  medi- 
cines, and  knows  just  what  I  want  you  to  have  in  the  way  of 
nourishment.  After  the  hot  poultice  is  applied  you  close  your  eyes 
and  go  to  sleep,  you  will  rest  nicely,  and  feel  much  better  when  I 
see  you  tomorrow." 

Upon  my  return  the  next  day  she  smiled  pleasantly  as  I  entered 
and  bade  her  good-morning,  and  when  I  felt  her  pulse  and  remarked, 
"You  are  better,"  she  answered,  "I  feel  much  better,  Doctor." 

"Going  right  along  to  recovery,  madam.  Now,  I  shall  see  you  day 
after  tomorrow." 

' '  See  her  every  day  if  you  think  best,  Doctor, ' '  exclaimed  her  son. 
"We  want  mother  to  be  well  real  soon." 

"I  can't  trust  everybody  as  I  can  you,  so  I  will  not  come  tomor- 
row unless  you  call  me.  She  is  going  to  do  well.  Keep  out  all 
visitors,  continue  all  directions,  and  I  will  see  her  again  day  after 
tomorrow. ' ' 

I  saw  that  patient  only  twice  more,  and  at  the  last  visit  assured 
her  that  it  was  a  pleasure  to  come  into  her  pleasant  family,  but 
that  I  was  going  to  turn  her  over  to  the  entire  charge  of  Mrs. 
Blank,  her  daughter. 

"If  you  feel  it  necessary  to  consult  me  again,  just  whistle  and  I 
will  come." 

In  about  seven  more  days  the  son  came  to  know  if  his  mother  had 
better  have  a  tonic ;  he  said  she  had  had  no  fever  for  three  or  four 
days  and  was  entirely  well.  Her  lung  cleared  up  upon  the  ninth 
day  of  her  disease. 

I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  all  pneumonia  cases  should  be  seen 
only  four  times.  In  fact,  a  daily  visit  or  two  is  indicated  in  most 
cases,  but  the  case  in  question  serves  to  illustrate  the  part  that  the 


362  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

psychological  factor  plays  in  an  ordinary  case  of  illness.  Many 
people  die  who  would  get  well  if  given  a  chance  to  allow  their  pro- 
toplasmic energies  to  assert  themselves. 

Out  in  California  I  was  invited  by  a  physician  to  go  with  him  on 
his  rounds  through  the  county  hospital.  Six  pneumonia  patients 
were  in  one  of  the  wards,  four  of  them  old  men.  The  majority  of 
these  were  chronic  alcoholics,  and  only  one  was  delirious  or  ap- 
peared seriously  ill. 

"But  one  death  from  pneumonia  in  five  years  in  this  hospital," 
was  the  physician's  record  up  to  that  time. 

' '  How  do  you  treat  them  ? "  I  inquired. 

"Keep  them  comfortable,  give  them  hospital  tea  (sweet  milk),  and 
let  them  have  Old  Frank  to  keep  them  feeling  good."  "Old 
Frank,"  as  the  hospital  physician  styled  the  genial  German  superin- 
tendent, carried  sunshine  and  good  cheer  into  those  wards  at  least 
twice  a  day.  He  had  then  been  in  his  place  for  seventeen  years, 
and  the  therapeutic  value  of  his  personality  to  that  institution  would 
be  hard  to  estimate.  He  knows  how  to  get  the  confidence  of  men 
and  women,  and  how  to  keep  them  feeling  good  when  they  are  sick. 
Many  a  poor  tramp,  who  has  seen  only  the  rough  side  of  life,  has 
felt  soothed  by  his  kindness,  and  buoyed  up  to  recovery  by  his  opti- 
mism, while  being  controlled  by  his  firmness. 

There  is  no  other  disease  in  which  the  influence  brought  to  bear 
upon  the  mind  of  the  patient  so  determines  the  recovery  or  nonre- 
covery  as  pneumonia.  It  is  a  self-limited  disease,  and  those  influ- 
ences which  soothe  the  mind  and  quiet  the  nervous  system  bring 
about  a  complete  re-establishment  of  the  nervous  equilibrium,  allow- 
ing the  blood  to  circulate  normally  through  the  peripheral  blood 
vessels  of  the  body,  and  thus  relieve  the  tension  or  high  pressure 
upon  the  heart  and  inflamed  lung,  with  its  fatal  termination  to 
pneumonia  patients. 

One  of  Old  Frank 's  characteristics  is  kindness,  which  is  encourag- 
ing in  contradistinction  to  sympathy,  which  is  depressing  and  weak- 
ening. 

There  is  more  or  less  mental  depression  in  all  pneumonia  patients, 
as  the  individual  is  rendered  painfully  conscious  of  his  helpless- 
ness. This  results  in  fear,  and  such  sufferers  enjoy  sympathy  as 


THE   ABUSE   OF   PERSONALITY.  363 

they  enjoy  morphin,  which  inhibits  the  normal  physiological  proc- 
esses and  stealthily  lessens  their  resistive  powers  to  the  disease. 
No  worse  influence  can  be  exerted  over  the  patient  than  the  presence 
of  a  highly  emotional  person,  who  lavishly  pours  out  sympathy  to 
the  destruction  of  all  the  optimistic  and  strengthening  qualities  of 
mind  and  body.  So  great  are  the  influences  brought  to  bear  by  the 
mind  over  the  physiological  processes  of  the  body  that  a  physician 
who  unconsciously  uses  the  power  of  suggestion  to  the  detriment  of 
his  patient  actually  makes  a  very  serious  condition  out  of  a  trivial 
disorder.  On  the  other  hand,  by  the  intelligent  and  judicious  use 
of  suggestion  we  can  make  a  very  trivial  disorder  out  of  a  seem- 
ingly serious  pathological  condition,  so  far  as  the  results  are  con- 
cerned. 

The  injury  done  to  the  unsuspecting  public  by  physicians  who 
are  ignorant  of  the  use  and  power  of  suggestion  is  far  greater  than 
is  commonly  supposed.  Whole  communities  have  become  fear- 
stricken  by  the  exaggerated  serious  reports  of  this  class  of  phy- 
sicians, who  frequently  ride  day  and  night  to  see  the  victims  of 
their  perverted  influence.  Their  very  influence  in  the  community 
in  which  they  live  spreads  like  a  contagious  disease,  emanating  from 
a  focus,  which  stealthily  moves  among  them,  reaping  financial  re- 
ward for  their  indiscretions. 

"Very  sick,  very  sick,"  is  their  watchword  as  they  implant  fear 
in  their  trail. 

While  the  laity  are  being  properly  educated  in  the  necessity  of 
self-protection  from  the  contagiousness  of  tuberculous  disease,  ma- 
larial and  yellow  fever  carriers,  and  other  infections,  for  the  safety 
of  their  own  lives  they  should  also  be  protected  from  that  pest  to 
any  community — the  physician  who  unduly  exaggerates  the  condi- 
tion of  his  patients  by  reporting  all  cases  as  being  seriously  ill. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 
ENVIRONMENT— ITS  INFLUENCE  IN  THERAPEUTICS. 

Only  the  practical  aspects  of  this  subject  remain  to  be  considered. 
A  physician  in  general  practice  must  not  only  treat  his  patient, 
but  be  in  absolute  control  of  the  environing  influence  brought 
to  bear  upon  him  as  well,  in  order  to  secure  the  best  results. 

The  sick-room,  especially  in  the  small  towns  and  rural  districts, 
is  often  the  meeting  place  for  gossipers,  who  unconsciously  exer- 
cise a  great  influence  upon  the  patient,  frequently  preventing  re- 
covery in  an  otherwise  curable  disease. 

To  say  nothing  of  the  value  of  quiet,  rest,  and  sleep,  which  are 
hindered  by  this  procedure,  the  discussion  of  other  cases  of  a  simi- 
lar kind  that  have  terminated  unfavorably  and  which  had  come 
within  the  experience  of  the  visitor,  or  remarks  relating  to  the 
procedures  of  another  physician  whose  methods  are  different  from 
your  own,  all  exercise  an  unconscious  influence  that  makes  the  pa- 
tient nervous,  excites  fear,  and  proves  destructive  to  that  confi- 
dential relation  which  should  exist  between  patient  and  physician. 

The  physician  who  is  timid  and  allows  this  state  of  affairs  to 
exist,  to  the  detriment  of  his  patient,  is  jeopardizing  his  profes- 
sional reputation. 

A  loud-mouthed,  self-assertive  woman,  who  is  the  unconscious 
drummer  for  a  competitor,  is  to  be  found  in  every  locality.  Seeing 
the  harmful  influence  of  such  an  individual  upon  a  patient  with  a 
continued  illness,  the  simple  instruction  to  "admit  no  visitors"  is 
usually  sufficient;  but  the  madam  in  question  is  not  always  re- 
pulsed so  easily,  as  she  unduly  exaggerates  the  importance  of  her 
presence  to  the  welfare  of  the  sufferer,  and  enforces  her  entrance 
in  spite  of  your  injunction,  which  she  considers  does  not  apply  to 
her. 

My  own  custom  has  been,  under  such  conditions,  to  give  my  pa- 

364 


ENVIRONMENT — ITS   INFLUENCE   IN   THERAPEUTICS.  365 

tient  or  his  family  the  choice  between  my  services  and  those  of  this 
unfriendly  visitor. 

Useless  antagonism,  however,  never  pays  upon  any  occasion,  but, 
where  the  welfare  of  your  patient  is  at  stake,  people  will  appre- 
ciate any  stand  that  you  take  in  his  behalf.  "Do  what's  right, 
come  what  may,"  is  a  safe  rule  under  any  and  all  circumstances, 
and  the  self-respecting  physician  should  exercise  the  courage  and 
self-assertiveness  to  face  these  problems  and  leave  no  stone  un- 
turned that  might  retard  the  recovery  of  his  patients.  The  suc- 
cessful men  in  the  medical  profession  are  those  who  have  the 
stamina  to  stand  by  their  convictions  and  allow  no  intervening  med- 
dler to  poison  the  environment  of  the  sick-room. 

In  a  large  class  of  cases  it  is  absolutely  impossible  to  obtain  suc- 
cessful results  in  private  practice  on  account  of  our  inability  to 
secure  the  right  environment,  and  here  is  where  sanatorium  and 
hospital  facilities  give  the  physician  a  wonderful  advantage.  In 
such  places  the  environment  is  absolutely  under  his  control  and 
direction. 

We  should,  however,  as  far  as  possible,  overrule  any  factor  in 
private  practice  that  will  in  any  way  set  up  an  undesirable  mental 
attitude  on  the  part  of  the  patient  in  regard  to  his  own  condition, 
or  that  will  create  mental  states  that  are  injurious;  for  mental 
states  influence  metabolism,  and  encourage  or  retard  all  the  normal 
physiological  processes,  and  wonderfully  help  or  woefully  hinder  the 
recovery  of  your  patient. 

In  all  classes  of  professional  work  there  is  a  fine  art  in  adapt- 
ing one's  self  to  whatever  environment  one  may  be  thrown  into, 
and  in  maintaining  that  prestige  which  the  successful  physician 
must  never  surrender.  When  to  be  dictatorial,  when  to  coerce, 
when  to  be  lenient  and  kind,  and  when  even  to  soothe  and  palliate 
by  your  presence,  and  at  the  same  time  be  in  absolute  control  of 
the  situation,  are  all  important  considerations  in  the  successful 
practice  of  medicine. 

People  sometimes  need  to  be  aroused  and  lifted  out  of  mental 
states  which  prove  to  be  adverse  to  their  recovery,  and  new  ones 
substituted  in  their  place ;  and  this  applies  not  only  to  the  patient, 
but  to  every  one  coming  into  his  or  her  presence.  It  is  our  duty, 


366  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

as  physicians,  to  create  an  environment  wherever  our  patients  are 
to  be  found  that  will  help  to  make  them  get  well. 

To  illustrate,  here  is  a  patient  sick  with  pneumonia,  a  disease 
that  frightens  the  majority  of  people.  On  my  second  visit  I  find 
the  family  and  others  in  attendance  depressed  and  down-hearted, 
which,  of  course,  renders  the  patient  morbidly  conscious  of  his  con- 
dition. It  is  evident  to  me  that  I  must  alter  that  environment  and 
re-establish  hope  in  my  patient,  or  the  outlook  is  very  grave.  Do 
I  send  for  a  consultant?  Not  unless  it  is  a  baby  less  than  two 
years  old.  "What  I  do  is  to  look  every  member  of  that  family 
squarely  in  the  face,  and  kindly  but  positively  tell  them,  and  also 
the  patient,  that  he  is  going  to  get  well.  I  have  frequently  em- 
phasized that  suggestion,  and  assured  the  patient  that  I  had  seen 
a  hundred  people  ten  times  sicker  than  he  with  pneumonia,  and 
every  one  of  them  recovered. 

Then,  getting  close  to  him,  with  my  hand  on  his  head,  I  quietly 
and  calmly  assure  him  that  I  have  never  treated  a  pneumonia  pa- 
tient above  two  years  old  who  did  not  get  well,  with  the  single 
exception  of  one  old  man  who  had  a  bilateral  pleuropneumonia, 
with  an  enormous  effusion,  and  I  tell  the  truth. 

I  leave  that  home  with  a  newly  created  helpful  environment  as 
a  therapeutic  resource,  and  under  such  conditions  my  patient  is 

• 

enabled  to  relax  and  to  proceed  with  a  consciousness  that  gives  rise 
to  mental  states  favorable  to  his  recovery. 

Do  I  depend  alone  upon  the  psychologic  factors  thus  set  in  opera- 
tion? No,  I  give  my  patient  the  benefit  of  every  other  possible 
therapeutic  adjunct,  from  the  application  of  a  brick — heated  to  a 
red  heat  and  placed  in  boiling  water,  and  allowed  to  remain  therein 
until  all  simmering  ceases,  wrapped  in  a  woolen  cloth,  and  the  moist 
heat  confined  by  a  blanket — to  the  diseased  lung,  or  a  cornmeal  and 
mustard  poultice,  renewed  and  applied  hot  every  hour  or  two,  or 
an  icebag  in  their  stead,  to  the  use  of  all  other  measures,  medicinal, 
dietetic,  and  hygienic. 

The  hot  brick,  taken  out  of  boiling  water,  has  a  weighty  psycho- 
logical significance  aside  from  being  an  excellent  vehicle  to  retain 
heat  and  moisture,  which  it  gradually  liberates  to  the  great  comfort 
of  the  sufferer.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  tell  both  my  patient  and  his 


ENVIRONMENT — ITS   INFLUENCE   IN    THERAPEUTICS.  367 

family  that  this  hot  brick  relieves  the  pain,  relaxes  the  patient  all 
over,  and  causes  the  blood  to  circulate  more  freely  to  the  periphery, 
and  thus  relieves  the  lung  of  its  congestion  and  inflammation,  re- 
duces his  temperature,  enables  him  to  sleep,  and  helps  to  make  him 
a  well  man.  I  tell  him  in  perfect  candor  and  truthfulness  that  I 
have  never  known  a  patient  who  has  used  the  hot  brick  heated  to  a 
white  heat,  and  then  taken  out  of  boiling  water  and  applied  as  in- 
dicated, to  fail  to  recover. 

Is  the  point  clear?  I  am  using  that  hot  brick  as  a  means  of 
suggestion.  Aside  from  the  therapeutic  value  of  heat  and  moisture, 
this  harmless  palliative  resource  is  used  to  substitute  sense  impres- 
sions that  are  pleasant  and  comfortable  in  the  place  of  existing 
ones  that  are  distressing.  This  enables  my  oral  suggestion,  strongly 
and  emphatically  driven  in  upon  his  consciousness,  to  call  myriads 
of  living  cells  in  his  organism  into  helpful,  useful,  and  active 
service. 

In  a  crisis  like  this  the  entire  picture  of  the  disease  is  changed  by 
the  personality  of  the  physician. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 
THE  BRUTALITY  OF  FRANKNESS. 

Honesty  Imperative. — A  physician  who  fully  appreciates  the  in- 
fluence exerted  by  suggestion  upon  the  mind,  and  the  influence 
exerted  by  the  mind  over  the  physiological  processes  of  the  body, 
will  habitually  give  a  more  favorable  prognosis  than  the  one  who 
does  not  appreciate  the  potency  of  such  measures. 

Every  physician  who  has  successfully  practiced  medicine  for  a 
few  years  has  observed  instances  where  the  family  of  a  sick  mem- 
ber, upon  becoming  aware  of  the  attending  physician's  grave  prog- 
nosis, has  insisted  upon  having  a  consultant,  who,  upon  his  advent 
in  the  sick-room,  has  taken  a  more  hopeful  view  of  the  patient's 
chances  for  recovery,  and  at  once  a  marked  improvement  has  be- 
gun, which  has  not  abated  until  complete  restoration  to  health  has 
been  secured. 

A  medical  man  in  the  West  related  this  experience:  He  was 
once  called  to  see  an  Indian  chief,  seriously  ill  with  an  acute  double 
lobar  pneumonia,  with  high  fever  and  severe  pain.  After  a  careful 
examination  he  frankly  and  honestly  made  it  known  to  the  family 
of  the  sick  warrior  that  in  his  opinion  he  could  not  get  well  and 
would  have  to  die.  The  brave  old  chief  did  not  so  easily  take  his 
suggestion  to  die,  and  he  refused  to  accept  the  physician 's  services, 
continuing  to  take  a  well-known  Indian  remedy  to  render  him  less 
conscious  of  his  suffering,  and,  while  surrounded  by  weird  noises 
and  dances,  and  other  savage  ceremonies,  the  recuperative  powers 
of  the  cells  of  his  organism  were  allowed  to  assert  themselves,  and 
he  made  a  safe  recovery. 

To  this  day  that  tribe  of  Indians  refuses  to  accept  the  services 
of  physicians,  having  had  the  strong  conviction  implanted  that  the 
white  man's  medicine  is  unreliable. 

A  gentleman  of  my  acquaintance  was  sick  for  many  months  with 
chronic  interstitial  nephritis,  probably  of  alcoholic  origin,  and  a 

368 


BRUTALITY   OP   FRANKNESS.  369 

competent  pathologist  found  large  quantities  of  tube  casts  in  his 
urine,  which  bore  a  large  percentage  of  albumin,  and  with  his 
report  gave  his  opinion  that  the  prognosis  was  grave.  His  attend- 
ing physician  and  also  a  consultant  gave  him  no  encouragement 
He  was  persuaded  to  take  an  infusion  of  some  kind  prepared  by 
an  illiterate  farmer  who  was  strongly  convinced  that  this  would 
effect  a  cure. 

His  physicians  allowed  the  harmless  experiment,  to  satisfy  his 
patient,  who  was  eager  to  try  anything  that  offered  a  possibility 
of  recovery.  With  every  dose  of  the  infusion,  however,  he  became 
more  influenced  by  the  farmer's  conviction  of  his  recovery,  and  he 
began  to  improve  from  the  time  he  commenced  the  remedy  until 
within  a  year  was  able  to  attend  to  business.  All  cases  of  degen- 
erative kidney  disease  are  not  necessarily  fatal,  but  he  was  steadily 
growing  weaker  all  the  while  until  he  began  the  farmer's  prescrip- 
tion, which  probably  benefited  him  more  through  its  psychic  influ- 
ence than  otherwise. 

I  was  called  some  years  ago  in  consultation  to  see  a  little  boy 
ten  years  of  age,  possibly  infected  with  malaria  at  first,  but  he  also 
had  a  subacute  gastroenterocolitis.  He  had  been  sick  for  nearly 
two  weeks,  was  still  having  frequent  watery,  mucous  discharges 
from  his  bowels,  and  had  for  thirty-six  hours  vomited  everything 
taken  into  his  stomach.  He  had  a  pulse  of  150;  temperature, 
100.5°  F. ;  pale,  weak,  and  anemic.  His  physician  had  given  him 
the  standard  medicinal  remedies,  as  recommended  by  our  best  au- 
thorities on  children's  diseases,  and  the  child  was  constantly  grow- 
ing weaker.  He  had  notified  the  family  that  the  outlook  was  grave, 
and  was  quite  willing  to  adopt  any  suggestions  that  I  might  offer. 

I  indorsed  all  his  measures,  but  suggested  that  they  be  discon- 
tinued on  the  grounds  that  the  results  did  not  warrant  their  further 
use.  He  was  anxious  for  me  to  share  the  responsibility  of  the 
situation,  and  readily  consented  that  only  %0  grain  of  calomel  be 
given  every  hour  while  the  patient  was  awake. 

Sitting  by  the  bedside,  I  dipped  my  fingers  into  a  bowl  of  ice 
water  and  began  to  gently  stroke  the  little  sufferer's  forehead.  I 
was  alone  with  him  at  the  time,  while  the  attending  physician  was 
out  of  the  room  with  his  mother,  giving  orders  for  the  day.  By 


370  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

the  time  they  returned  to  the  sick-room  I  had  suggested  the  patient 
into  a  refreshing  sleep,  and  had  also  given  him  other  suggestions 
appropriate  to  his  condition.  That  he  should  be  asleep  was  some- 
what of  a  surprise  to  his  mother,  whose  anxiety  and  nervousness 
had  served  to  keep  him  from  doing  as  well  as  he  would  possibly 
have  done  had  she  been  more  self-composed. 

"Will  you  do  me  the  favor,  Mrs.  Blank,  to  take  that  bowl  away 
from  the  bedside,  and  remove  all  towels  from  the  bed  also?"  I 
asked. 

"Why,  Doctor,  the  child  would  vomit  all  over  his  bed  and  also 
on  my  floor,"  responded  she. 

"Madam,  take  the  bowl  away,  and  cover  your  floor  and  his  bed 
with  newspapers,  and,  if  he  vomits  one  time,  put  them  back.  He 
will  rest  well  today  and  sleep  most  of  the  time.  You  will  have 
to  awaken  him  to  give  the  tablets,  but  that  will  quiet  his  stomach 
and  keep  him  from  vomiting  again.  Keep  the  room  absolutely 
quiet,  allowing  no  conversation  at  all  to  disturb  him.  Allow  him 
to  drink  all  the  water  he  wishes  when  you  give  the  tablet,  to  quiet 
his  stomach  and  make  him  sleep.  He  will  want  some  chicken  and 
barley  broth  tomorrow,  and,  if  Doctor  Blank  says  so,  I  think  he  will 
enjoy  it. ' ' 

The  mother  looked  queer,  but  removed  the  bowl  and  towels.  I 
also  requested  her  to  tell  him  to  go  to  sleep  when  she  gave  the 
tablets. 

The  little  patient  rested  well  that  night,  and  when  we  returned 
the  next  day  his  face  brightened  and  he  smiled  as  he  bade  us  good- 
morning. 

"Oh,  he  is  so  much  better,"  exclaimed  his  mother,  "and  he  is 
begging  for  something  to  eat."  He  improved  every  day  and  went 
on  to  recovery  in  due  time. 

Every  word  spoken  by  me  to  that  mother  while  the  child  was 
asleep  was  a  suggestion,  an  indirect  suggestion,  which  is  always  the 
most  powerful  kind. 

Even  a  child  four  years  old  appreciates  sense  impressions,  or 
suggestions  made  upon  his  brain  cortex,  far  more  than  is  realized  by 
people  and  physicians  in  general.  A  little  boy  of  my  knowledge, 
four  years  of  age,  was  sick  with  an  acute  capillary  bronchitis,  and 


BRUTALITY   OP   FRANKNESS.  371 

his  father,  who  was  a  physician,  felt  very  much  concerned  about 
his  condition. 

His  mother,  as  was  her  custom,  at  bedtime  began  to  have  him 
recite  his  infant's  prayer,  and  after  her  the  child  repeated:  "Now 
I  lay  me  down  to  sleep,  I  pray  the  Lord  my  soul  to  keep,  if  I 
should—  '  there  he  began  to  have  a  paroxysm  of  coughing,  and 
when  he  could  speak  again  he  said,  "Mamma,  mamma,  I  don't 
want  to  say  any  dying  prayer — I  want  to  say  a  living  prayer,  like 
that  papa  told  you." 

The  substitute  for  the  standard  orthodox  style  of  prayer  had 
been  learned  from  one  of  the  current  journals,  and  went  as  follows : 

"Now  I  lay  me  down  to  sleep, 
I  know  the  Lord  my  soul  shall  keep, 
And  I  shall  wake  to  see  the  light, 
For  God  is  with  me  all  the  night." 

To  satisfy  the  child  and  his  mother,  the  father  said,  "Yes,  my 
boy,  we  don 't  want  a  dying  prayer — at  least  not  when  we  are  sick, ' ' 
and  he  repeated  the  substitute,  the  child  saying  it  after  him,  and 
then  went  quietly  to  sleep. 

If  an  ignorant  Indian  chief,  that  child  of  the  plains,  and  a  little 
four-year-old  boy  can  appreciate  a  living  prognosis  and  a  living 
prayer,  so  are  all  men  and  women  influenced  by  sense  impressions 
or  suggestions  that  a  gloomy  prognosis  produces,  with  its  weaken- 
ing, paralyzing,  inhibitory  influence  to  all  the  nerve  centers. 

It  is  a  physician's  duty,  first,  last,  and  all  the  time,  to  do  that 
which  will  help  the  patient  get  well. 

There  are  many  instances  where,  in  a  case  of  extreme  illness,  the 
only  help  that  can  be  given  a  patient  is  to  inspire  him  with  hope, 
encouragement,  and  optimism,  allaying  his  fears,  and  bringing 
about  those  conditions  necessary  for  the  physiological  processes  to 
accomplish  the  work  of  restoring  the  patient  to  health. 

By  the  influence  exerted  upon  the  mind  we  encourage  all  the 
physiological  processes,  and  thus,  through  them,  convert  potential 
energy  into  dynamic  energy.  We  help  the  cells  of  the  body  to 
accomplish  their  work  of  fighting  the  etiological  factors  of  disease, 
whether  due  to  pathogenic  germs  or  to  other  factors. 

Physicians  have  frequently  reminded  me,  in  discussing  this  phase 


372  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

of  our  subject,  that  they  have  repeatedly  witnessed  a  rapid  lessen^ 
ing  of  the  resistive  powers  and  speedy  death  as  soon  as  they  ren- 
dered an  unfavorable  prognosis,  given  frankly  and  honestly  in 
response  to  the  question,  "Doctor,  do  you  think  I  am  going  to  get 
well?" 

If  a  patient  who  is  extremely  ill  has  important  business  matters 
in  mind  that  are  worrying  him,  let  them  be  arranged  to  his  satis- 
faction upon  the  ground  that  it  will  help  him  get  well. 

To  such  questions  as,  "Am  I  going  to  die?"  you  can  evade  a 
direct  answer  by  giving  one  that  will  be  perfectly  satisfactory  to 
your  patient,  and  at  the  same  time  will  create  sense  impressions 
that  will  set  up  a  different  line  of  thought. 

I  prefer  to  so  impress  my  patient  that  such  an  idea  will  never 
come  into  his  mind,  and  also  to  engage  the  services  of  every  mem- 
ber of  his  family  to  help  me  to  accomplish  this  result,  while  on  the 
outside  I  take  them  into  my  confidence  and  express  my  opinion  to 
them  honestly  and  frankly. 

Even  in  a  case  of  acute  multiple  neuritis,  with  high  fever,  in- 
tense pain,  hyperesthesia,  and  great  tenderness,  in  which  the  dis- 
ease reached  its  height  in  ten  or  twelve  days,  I  was  enabled  to 
maintain  a  mental  stoicism  that  was  remarkable,  and  at  the  time 
of  the  patient's  most  distressing  symptoms  he  repeated  to  me  the 
suggestion  that  I  had  so  often  iterated  to  him.  I  had  so  often  said 
to  him,  "You  will  get  better,"  that  he  began  to  ask  for  the  sug- 
gestion by  saying,  "I  will  get  better,  won't  1^  Doctor?"  It  was 
some  months  before  he  was  able  to  go  about  on  crutches,  but  I 
never  let  him  get  away  from  the  conviction  of  recovery. 

At  the  time  of  the  Galveston  flood  an  unfortunate  man  was 
picked  up  perfectly  helpless,  in  a  half-drowned,  wounded  condi- 
tion, and  for  six  months  lay  in  bed  wearing  a  plaster  cast  for  a 
severe  injury  to  his  spine.  Two  years  later  he  was  hobbling  on 
crutches,  which  he  had  been  using  for  many  months,  but  he  was 
unable  to  get  his  hands  to  the  floor  and  rise  again  without  support. 
He  was  in  constant  pain,  had  numerous  functional  disturbances, 
insomnia,  indigestion,  frequent  movements  from  his  bowels,  head- 
aches, etc. 

"When  I  saw  him  I  felt  that  possibly  his  nervous  system  was 


BRUTALITY   OF    FRANKNESS.  373 

retaining  impressions  after  the  results  of  the  physical  injury  which 
caused  his  pain,  disturbances  of  locomotion,  and  other  symptoms 
had  been  removed ;  and,  at  the  request  of  his  physician,  I  gave  him 
three  suggestive  treatments,  using  hypnotism  as  a  means  to  secure 
the  most  effective  results. 

All  his  symptoms  were  relieved,  including  his  indigestion  and 
bowel  complications,  after  three  or  four  treatments;  he  put  aside 
his  crutches,  and  a  week  after  the  last  treatment  was  comfortable 
and  happy. 

In  all  classes  of  practice  the  therapeutic  value  of  suggestions, 
strongly  put  into  the  brain  plasm  of  your  patient,  will  help  him  to 
get  well  where  recovery  is  possible. 

In  some  classes  of  work  all  that  a  physician  can  accomplish  for 
the  patient  is  to  help  him  endure  his  physical  disabilities.  This 
includes  such  cases  as  where  the  organic  structure  of  the  nerve  cells 
is  involved,  atrophic  changes  have  taken  place  in  the  spinal  cord 
or  any  other  parts  of  the  motor  nervous  system,  as  well  as  inop- 
erable pathological  conditions,  resulting  from  malignant  disease, 
tuberculosis,  and  all  such  cases  as  are  beyond  the  pale  of  recovery. 

Even  in  these  cases,  however,  we  can  use  suggestive  measures  to 
enable  the  patient  to  better  endure  his  sufferings,  and  do  so  with- 
out the  aid  of  hypnotism,  much  to  the  comfort  of  both  the  patient 
and  his  family. 

In  two  cases  of  malignant  disease — in  one  case  of  the  uterus  and 
in  another  of  the  stomach — occurring  in  two  people  above  the  age 
of  sixty,  I  kept  them  each  so  cheered  by  constantly  holding  before 
their  attention  a  contemplation  of  their  past  lives,  which  had  been 
filled  with  usefulness,  of  duty  done  and  successful  achievement  in 
their  own  humble  way,  and  so  pointed  out  the  moral  heroism  that 
they  were  displaying  and  the  value  of  such  an  example  of  cheerful- 
ness and  optimism,  that  they  were  enabled  to  meet  that  sweetest 
and  most  welcome  of  all  relievers  of  pain  and  suffering  under  such 
existing  conditions,  death,  with  hardly  a  word  of  complaint. 

If  our  patients  have  sufficient  recuperative  powers  to  give  even 
the  slightest  hope  of  recovery,  let  us  strengthen  that  hope  and  help 
them  get  well. 

If  they  are  ill  with  incurable  diseases,  we  should  help  them  to 


374  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

endure  their  suffering,  all  the  while  working  for  their  recovery 
even  without  the  slightest  ray  of  hope  to  encourage  us.  Thousands 
and  thousands  of  such  efforts  have  been  rewarded  by  the  recovery 
of  apparently  incurable  patients. 

A  million  years  of  advancement  and  progress  will  not  have  ren- 
dered our  most  expert  diagnosticians  sufficiently  competent  to  prog- 
nosticate with  infallibility,  in  all  cases,  against  the  determined  and 
persistent  effort  of  the  truly  alive  physician  who  will  stand  up, 
with  all  odds  against  him,  and  fight  for  the  recovery  of  his  patient 
with  every  available  therapeutic  resource. 

Absolute  honesty  and  sincerity,  under  all  circumstances,  are  im- 
perative to  the  self-respecting  physician,  but  the  weakening,  par- 
alyzing, discouraging  frankness  of  the  pessimist  is  brutal. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

MORAL  STAMINA— A  THERAPEUTIC  POWER. 

As  we  learn  to  discriminate  between  people  of  other  classes  pre- 
sumably of  like  character  and  qualities,  so  do  we  also  with  phy- 
sicians. There  are  among  medical  men  some  who,  in  the  true  sense 
of  the  word,  are  not  physicians  at  all.  Here  is  a  type  of  the  latter 
class.  One  day,  in  speaking  of  the  importance  of  the  psychological 
factor  in  therapeutics  with  a  physician,  he  said,  "Well,  there  may 
be  something  in  that;  for  not  long  since  I  had  a  patient  who  lay 
in  bed  a  little  over  three  months,  and  I  could  not  find  a  thing  the 
matter  with  her,  but  I  have  never  tried  to  exercise  any  influence 
over  my  patients  in  any  way.  They  expect  medicine,  and  I  give 
it  to  them,  and  let  them  use  their  own  minds  to  suit  themselves. 
I  am  not  in  the  profession  for  my  health,  and  a  man  is  liable  to 
lose  out  with  his  patients  by  being  too  dictatorial." 

' '  How  often  did  you  see  her,  Doctor  ? ' ' 

"Twice  a  day." 

"And  you  let  her  stay  in  bed  three  months,  saw  her  twice  a  day, 
and  did  not  even  tell  her  that  there  was  no  reason  for  her  staying 
in  bed,  and  advise  that  she  get  up  and  move  about,  take  exercise, 
get  fresh  air,  and  take  an  interest  in  the  affairs  of  life,  both  as  a 
means  of  happiness  and  for  her  physical  well-being  ? ' ' 

"No;  she  was  a  very  sensitive  woman,  and  I  hated  to  hurt  her 
feelings,"  he  replied. 

"What  was  your  bill  in  that  case,  Doctor?" 

"Four  hundred  and  eighty  dollars." 

"And  you  are  not  afraid  to  hurt  her  feelings  with  that  sized 
bill?" 

' '  Oh,  no ;  she  was  quite  well  satisfied  and  paid  it  without  a  mur- 
mur. ' ' 

"Why,  Doctor,  if  I  saw  no  reason  for  that  woman  staying  in 

375 


376  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

bed  and  having  me  visit  her  twice  a  day,  I  would  as  lief  take  money 
off  a  dead  man 's  eyes  as  receive  pay  for  such  work. ' ' 

"That  is  just  the  difference  between  us,"  said  he. 

And  it  was.  And  this  illustrates  a  type  of  men  everywhere  who 
call  themselves  physicians. 

Some  physicians  are  actually  convinced  that  they  have  done  their 
duty  when  they  have  been  kind,  sympathetic,  and  attentive  to  their 
patients  and  prescribed  for  them  medicinally.  Since  their  patients 
are  satisfied,  they  seem  to  feel  that  they  have  done  their  whole  duty. 
So  long  as  there  is  money  in  "the  case,  the  recovery  of  the  patient 
does  not  seem  to  concern  them. 

The  absolute  lack  of  moral  courage  displayed  by  this  class  of 
doctors,  who  upon  the  surface  give  the  appearance  of  being  honest 
and  conscientious  professional  gentlemen,  is  horrible  to  contemplate. 
They  use  narcotics  freely,  even  when  contraindicated,  inhibiting 
the  normal  physiological  processes,  robbing  their  patients  of  self- 
reliance,  rendering  them  absolutely  dependent  upon  the  physician, 
lessening  in  every  way  their  resistive  powers,  and  actually  retard- 
ing recovery.  We  all  have  seen  such  men,  who,  in  the  spirit  of 
cold  commercialism,  impress  by  word  and  conduct  on  their  patients 
that  they  are  very  sick,  when  this  attitude  on  the  physician's  part 
has  proved  to  be  a  great  causative  factor  in  the  case.  Their  pa- 
tients, after  a  long  illness,  consider  that  their  physician,  in  having 
impressed  on  them  that  such  would  be  the  case,  has  only  displayed 
his  knowledge  and  good  judgment,  whereas,  in  fact,  this  man  in 
whom  they  have  trusted  has  really  been  the  greatest  causative 
factor  in  the  case. 

Some  physicians  acquire  a  high  reputation  by  giving  a  gloomy 
prognosis,  thereby  instilling  fear  into  the  minds  of  both  patients 
and  friends,  bringing  to  bear  upon  them  all  the  psychological  con- 
ditions possible  to  depress  them  and  hypnotize  them  into  a  long 
siege  of  illness.  The  power  and  efficacy  of  suggestion  in  the  cause 
and  cure  of  disease  are  but  faintly  appreciated  by  one  in  a  thou- 
sand of  the  people  of  our  time ;  hence  their  easy  gullibility  by  such 
men.  The  student  of  psychotherapeutics  can  discern  this  class  of 
physicians  everywhere,  who  often  stand  high  in  the  medical  pro- 
fession. 


MORAL    STAMINA A    THERAPEUTIC    POWER.  377 

If  I  were  to  use  the  simile  that  I  had  in  my  employ  a  servant 
ever  able  and  willing  to  obey  my  directions  to  have  everything  in 
the  house  just  as  I  wanted  it,  you  could  form  some  idea  of  the 
poweu  of  the  great  involuntary  nervous  system  in  its  control  over 
the  bodily  functions.  We  influence  this  involuntary  nervous  sys- 
tem by  the  sense  impressions  we  make  upon  the  brain  plasm  of 
the  patient  whenever  we  come  into  his  or  her  presence. 

Fully  nine-tenths  of  an  individual's  psychic  powers  or  proto- 
plasmic energies  are  subconscious — that  is,  he,  the  intellectual  man, 
is  unconscious  of  them.  These  we  can  influence  for  the  good  or 
harm  of  our  patient.  The  physician  who  shakes  his  head,  and  gives 
a  high-sounding  name  of  the  disease,  often  fastens  the  condition 
stronger  upon  his  patient  by  adding  a  psychoneurotic  element  when 
there  is  no  pathological  basis  for  the  condition  named. 

A  lady  of  my  acquaintance  had  been  sick  for  several  months,  and 
her  physician  took  with  him  to  see  her  a  consultant  who  appre- 
ciated the  psychic  element  in  therapeutics.  Together  in  the  con- 
sulting room  they  discussed  this  case. 

1 '  What  is  the  matter  with  her,  Doctor  ? ' ' 

"Just  weak  and  nervous,  can't  sleep,  does  not  eat,  discouraged, 
and  getting  worse  every  day." 

The  consulting  physician  quickly  saw  that  the  attending  phy- 
sician was  the  most  aggravating  causative  factor  in  this  case. 

' '  Why  does  not  she  get  better  ? ' '  said  he  to  the  consultant. 

"Because  you  don't  talk  and  act  right." 

"What  must  I  do  and  how  should  I  talk?" 

"Why,  give  her  a  sleeping  capsule,  and  tell  her  that  you  are 
going  to  give  her  a  good  night's  sleep.  Then  turn  to  the  nurse 
and  say,  'Give  one  of  these  sleeping  capsules  at  eight  o'clock,  and, 
if  she  is  not  sleeping  soundly  by  nine,  give  her  another,  but  in  no 
event  give  her  more  than  two — she  will  sleep  soundly  all  night.' 
Say  it  as  if  you  meant  it.  Say  it  as  if  you  had  not  the  slightest 
doubt  about  it.  Then,  turning  to  the  patient,  say,  'You  are 
going  to  sleep  well  tonight  and  will  feel  much  better  in  the  morn- 
ing.' 

"When  you  come  to  see  her  tomorrow,  smile  pleasantly  as  you 
walk  into  the  room  and,  as  you  bid  her  good-morning,  take  her 


378  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

hand,  and,  feeling  her  pulse,  affirm,  'You  are  better.'  Tell  her  she 
will  improve  every  day  now.  Say  to  her,  'You  will  enjoy  your 
food  today  and  not  be  nervous,  and  will  feel  much  stronger;  you 
are  going  to  get  well;  going  right  along  to  recovery.'  Keep  this 
up  as  you  see  her  at  every  visit.  Getting  in  behind  a  neurasthenic 
case  like  this,  with  all  the  bodily  functions  perverted,  you  can  stir 
latent  energies  and  stimulate  nervous  centers  into  activity,  and  be 
a  factor  for  good." 

The  physician  did  so  and  his  patient  was  soon  well. 

Too  many  physicians  are  nothing  more  than  slaves  to  their  own 
desires.  They  see  in  their  patient's  illness  a  chance  to  make  money. 
They  feel  that  they  have  done  their  duty  when  they  have  prescribed 
for  them  in  a  perfunctory  manner,  and,  putting  their  reliance  solely 
in  drugs,  they  overlook  entirely  the  psychologic  factor  in  thera- 
peutics. They  even  tell  their  patients  that  they  are  seriously  sick, 
purely  for  personal  aggrandizement. 

The  result  is  undue  nervousness,  overanxiety,  sleeplessness,  per- 
verted functions,  and  constant  progress  from  bad  to  worse.  These 
symptoms  they  attempt  to  relieve  by  narcotics.  They  enter  the  sick 
room  in  this  indifferent,  half-hearted,  selfish  manner,  and  their 
efforts  are  worse  than  useless. 

See  in  your  patient  potentialities  that  are  susceptible  to  external 
stimuli,  and  regard  something  besides  the  physical  manifestation  of 
the  individual.  Treat  the  man  himself,  the  intelligent  organized 
force — call  this  mind,  soul,  or  spirit — that  functionates  in  perfect 
correlation  with  the  neuron  elements,  and  stir  them  to  renew,  ener- 
gize, vitalize,  and  strengthen  every  part  of  his  physical  organism. 

What  do  we  stir  ?  Call  it  what  you  will — let  it  be  the  ' '  vis  medi- 
catrix  naturas,"  the  "resident  energy  within,"  "neuric  energy," 
the  "subconscious  self,"  the  "involuntary  nervous  system,"  the 
"psychic  man,"  "spirit,"  "mind,"  or  "soul" — the  name  matters 
not.  This  fact  is  true — man  has  within  him  reserve  energy  that 
can  be  stirred  into  activity.  By  suggestion  the  physiological  proc- 
esses of  the  body  can  be  influenced  for  his  good.  We  can  produce 
such  impressions  upon  his  brain  plasm  as  will  quiet  nervousness, 
relieve  pain,  promote  sleep,  and,  acting  thus,  we  can  conserve  his 
energy,  resulting  in  a  better  appetite,  better  digestion,  and  im- 


MORAL   STAMINA — A   THERAPEUTIC   POWER.  379 

proved  nutrition.  "We  thus  re-establish  all  the  perverted  physio- 
logical processes.  By  this  means  you  can  get  your  patient  well 
when  drugs  and  other  remedial  agents  absolutely  fail.  If  medi- 
cine or  surgery  is  indicated,  by  all  means  use  it. 

The  great  trouble  is  that  many  of  the  men  in  our  profession  are 
ignorant  of  the  potency  of  the  psychologic  factor  as  a  therapeutic 
adjunct.  Some  who  have  had  a  glimpse  of  these  latent  possibili- 
ties lack  the  moral  stamina  to  boldly  take  hold  and  do  their  part. 
I  know  men  who  would  face  a  cannon  absolutely  devoid  of  physical 
fear,  yet  too  timid  and  half-hearted  in  the  sick-room  to  do  more 
than  give  drugs,  nine-tenths  of  which  are  worse  than  useless  in 
this  class  of  functional  and  neuropathic  conditions. 

Many  of  these  sick  people  need  a  good,  sound,  intellectual  flog- 
ging. They  need  to  be  told  that  they  alone  are  to  blame  for  their 
condition.  Let  them  know  that  health  is  a  natural  condition  and 
comes  to  every  one  who  conforms  to  nature's  laws,  which  they  are 
continually  violating  every  day  of  their  lives. 

Emerson  has  well  said:  "Man  may  boast  that  he  can  violate 
the  laws  of  nature  and  maintain  health ;  the  lie  is  on  his  lips,  the 
conditions  on  his  soul." 

Let  your  patient  know  that  to  maintain  health  he  must  conform 
to  the  laws  of  health.  Get  hold  of  him  and  put  him  in  possession 
of  himself.  Urge  him  to  take  into  his  system  plenty  of  nature's 
healthful  beverage,  pure  water,  to  eliminate  impurities  from  his 
system  and  to  encourage  all  functional  activity.  A  man  should 
drink  not  less  than  four  or  five  pints  of  water  a  day.  Tell  him  or 
her  to  exercise  freely  every  muscle  and  hasten  the  blood  to  every 
part  of  his  system,  to  eliminate  effete  material  as  well  as  to  build 
up,  nourish,  and  renew  the  life  and  strength  of  every  cell  in  his 
body.  Advise  him  against  becoming  a  slave  to  his  appetites,  over- 
eating, sexual  excess,  etc. 

Fully  nine-tenths  of  the  American  people  eat  too  much  meat, 
and  keep  their  nervous  systems  overtaxed  to  dispose  of  the  amount 
of  food  in  excess  of  what  is  actually  necessary  for  nutrition.  Get 
such  people,  when  nervous,  to  learn  to  relax  and  to  practice  deep 
breathing  as  a  resource  of  healthfulness.  Impress  upon  them  the 
pleasure,  beauty,  and  glory  of  work,  and  useful  endeavor  and 


380  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

achievement,  as  a  means  to  invigorate  and  strengthen  both  mind  and 
body.  Let  them  know  that  we  are  born  into  this  beautiful  world 
surrounded  by  everything  to  make  us  happy  and  keep  us  well,  but 
that  the  world  is  ruled  by  law  and  we  must  conform  to  laws  of 
health,  and  that  when  we  do  that  we  shall  be  well  and  happy,  which 
is  our  highest  privilege,  and  not  before. 

It  is  often  the  case  that  our  patients  need  education  and  en- 
couragement, knowledge  and  guidance — other  names  for  suggestion 
— and  not  medicine  or  sympathy,  which  only  fixes  them  deeper  in 
the  mire;  but  there  are  some  who  are  called  physicians  who  have 
not  the  courage  to  attempt  to  make  use  of  these  therapeutic 
measures. 

Why  let  Christian  scientists,  osteopaths,  and  other  species  of 
charlatanism  thrive  upon  a  large  class  of  cases  when,  if  we  were 
but  equipped  in  this  higher  art  in  therapeutics,  we  could  day  by 
day  infuse  health  and  happiness,  joy  and  sunshine,  into  the  lives  of 
weak,  erring,  miserable  children  of  this  world  who  are  crying  to 
us  for  help.  Our  patients  are  not  merely  chemical  laboratories, 
but  human  beings,  with  intelligent  faculties  to  comprehend  our 
suggestions  that  act  upon  every  part  of  the  body  through  the  nerv- 
ous centers.  If  properly  presented,  they  will  regulate  all  per- 
verted functions  in  perfect  accord  with  the  physiological  processes 
of  the  body. 

Man  is  not  a  machine,  but  a  living  organism.  The  unseen  part  of 
man — mind,  spirit,  or  soul — constitutes  the  dynamics  of  this  human 
organism,  functionating  in  perfect  correlation  with  the  neuron  ele- 
ments, and  they  constitute  the  greatest  therapeutic  factor  at  our 
command,  ever  present  and  ready  for  utilization. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 
SUGGESTION  IN  EDUCATION. 

The  prime  purpose  of  education  is  to  equip  the  individual  to 
make  the  struggle  for  existence.  More  than  ever  before  do  we  now 
realize  that  this  necessitates  the  development  of  the  body  as  well 
as  the  mind — that  body,  mind,  and  character  are  all  qualities  of 
the  one  individual,  and  that  it  is  practically  impossible  to  elevate 
one  quality  while  the  others  are  weak  or  degraded.  The  problems 
of  health  concern  all  that  contributes  to  the  evolution  of  the  indi- 
vidual— physically,  mentally,  and  morally. 

The  capacities  and  capabilities  of  the  body  should  occupy  more 
consideration  in  our  educational  system  than  is  done  at  the  present 
time.  When  education  or  religion  interferes  with  the  physical  de- 
velopment of  children,  it  strikes  a  weakening  blow  at  the  quality 
of  brain  plasm  possessed  by  the  child,  and,  to  obtain  the  best  results 
in  mental  development,  this  should  be  kept  at  a  high  standard. 
Moreover,  any  factor  that  retards  physical  growth  amct  development, 
while  education  is  enforced,  seriously  jeopardizes  the  life  of  the  in- 
dividual, and  our  American  cities  have  thousands  of  physically 
weak,  neurasthenic  boys  and  girls  who  have  been  maimed  for  life 
under  the  strain  of  the  existing  educational  methods. 

Every  one  should  be  environed  by  those  conditions  that  maintain 
the  highest  standard  of  protoplasmic  energy  during  the  period  of 
childhood  and  adolescence.  The  impressions  that  are  made  upon 
the  brain  through  the  senses  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave  are  the 
suggestions  that  constitute  the  education  of  an  individual.  Here 
those  that  are  useful  and  good,  or  harmful  and  false,  are  alike  re- 
corded, to  furnish  foodstuff  for  the  mind,  which  is  manifested  in 
thought  and  conduct. 

School  training,  after  all,  consists  only  in  furnishing  an  environ- 
ment in  which  certain  suggestions,  ideas,  mental  pictures,  concepts, 
or  impressions  can  be  photographed  on  the  rapidly  developing  cere- 

381 


382  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

bral  cells.  Here  consciousness  itself  is  evolved,  habits  are  formed, 
and  a  new  world  is  opened  to  view  as  a  child's  perceptive  powers 
are  strengthened  and  individuality  begins  to  assert  itself. 

While  a  certain  quality  of  physical  traits  and  habit  tendencies 
are  transmitted  to  the  offspring,  by  far  the  most  potent  factors 
in  making  children  what  they  become  are  the  inherited  environ- 
ing conditions  which  bring  to  bear  upon  the  child  their  uncon- 
scious suggestive  influences.  What  we  are  is  largely  the  result 
of  what  we  have  experienced  in  life.  Habits  of  thought,  traits  of 
character,  religious  beliefs,  moral  convictions,  etc.,  are  all  directly 
the  result  of  impressions  that  have  been  registered  upon  our  cere- 
bral cells.  Environment  contributes  both  to  our  physical  and 
mental  constitutions. 

In  the  slums  of  one  of  our  great  American  cities  I  noticed  a 
little  two-year-old  child,  without  shoes,  bareheaded,  and  dirty,  in 
ragged  clothes  that  scarcely  covered  its  poorly  nourished  body; 
reared  in  filth  and  poverty,  with  a  drunken  father  to  abuse  its 
weak-faced  mother,  who  tolerated  her  pitiable  state  of  existence 
because  she  did  not  know  any  better.  Had  she  been  taught  to 
work,  and  to  think  and  do  for  herself,  she  could  easily  have  extri- 
cated herself  from  this  miserable  role.  That  a  child  born  under 
such  conditions  should  become  a  prostitute,  contract  disease,  and 
die  before  she  was  scarcely  out  of  her  teens  would  be  as  natural 
as  the  law  of  gravitation. 

A  girl  whose  father  at  the  time  of  her  birth  was  occupying  the 
position  of  president  of  a  great  college,  and  who  was  reared  in  the 
lap  of  education  and  refinement,  could  have  been  nothing  else  than 
the  mathematical  resultant  of  the  parallelogram  of  the  forces  that 
environed  her. 

A  little  child  of  my  knowledge  was  taken  at  six  months  old  by 
a  couple  of  kind-hearted  people,  who  provided  it  with  all  the  phys- 
ical necessities  of  life.  They  saw  in  this  little  one  latent  possibili- 
ties and  potentialities  that  could  be  developed  and  trained  into 
active,  useful  service,  and  they  enjoyed  watching  its  growth. 
They  said  she  was  beautiful,  and  the  child  smiled  and  cooed,  and 
grew  more  beautiful.  They  informed  their  friends  that  she  was 
smart,  and  every  day  reminded  the  little  one  of  this  belief  in  her, 


SUGGESTION    IN    EDUCATION.  383 

and  at  an  early  age  she  did  all  sorts  of  useful  service.  They  said 
that  she  was  good  and  obedient,  and,  true  to  the  law  of  suggestion, 
they  molded  those  very  qualities  in  her.  They  loved  to  listen  to 
her  merry  prattle,  and  she  early  acquired  a  vocabulary  of  words 
to  express  her  ideas. 

Later,  when  she  started  to  school,  they  believed  that  she  would 
excel  in  her  classes,  and  she  led  in  every  study.  They  encouraged 
her  efforts  to  imitate  her  foster  mother  in  cooking,  and,  though  she 
soiled  her  clothing  and  wasted  material,  they  were  pleased,  and 
she  soon  became  an  expert  cook.  They  appreciated  her  efforts  at 
the  piano,  and  she  developed  into  a  talented  musician.  Still  later 
in  life  she  married,  and  was  the  pride  and  helper  of  her  husband, 
and  an  honored  woman  in  her  community. 

Such  was  the  culminating  force  of  suggestion  in  the  home  life 
in  its  influence  upon  the  life  and  character  of  a  motherless  waif. 
Who  can  dispute  the  saying  that  "men  and  women  make  men  and 
women  ? ' ' 

"You  are  a  bad  boy,  just  as  bad  as  you  can  be,  and  I  will  never 
let  you  come  down  town  with  me  again,"  said  a  mother  to  her  little 
six-year-old,  who  was  the  impersonation  of  the  character  that  his 
mother  had  exhibited  for  him  every  day  of  his  life. 

Children  are  usually  just  what  their  parents  make  them. 

A  little  four-year-old  boy  was  playing  upon  the  floor  with  his 
fifteen-months-old  baby  sister.  He  impulsively  jerked  some  of  his 
toys  from  her  baby  hands,  and  she  in  turn  began  to  cry.  The 
mother,  who  was  quietly  sewing  near  by,  witnessed  the  incident, 
and,  looking  up  serenely,  in  a  subdued  tone  called  young  America 
to  her.  He  sulked  up  to  her  with  a  face  that  indicated  that  his 
rights  were  being  transgressed,  and  he  was  not  disposed  to  stand 
for  it. 

"Kiss  me,  my  boy,"  said  she,  while  she  implanted  a  kiss  upon 
his  forehead.  She  then  good-naturedly  placed  her  fingers  under 
his  chin,  and,  with  his  face  upturned  to  hers,  quietly  said  to  him, 
"You  are  mamma's  little  man ;  you  are  a  good  boy.  Yes,  you  are; 
you  are  a  good  boy,  and  I  know  you  are  going  to  be  just  as  sweet 
to  your  little  sister  as  you  can  be.  She  is  a  little  baby,  but  you 
are  a  little  man.  Now,  I  am  going  to  see  if  you  aren't." 


384  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

In  a  few  moments  the  mother  looked  up  again,  and  her  little 
son  had  piled  around  his  sister  all  the  toys  he  could  find.  He  sat 
upon  the  floor,  looking  first  at  his  sister  and  then  at  his  mother, 
trying  in  vain  to  suppress  his  delight  in  his  mother's  approval, 
which  he  seemed  sure  he  would  get.  "I  told  you  so;  come  and  kiss 
me  again,"  said  she,  making  a  quick  move  as  if  to  catch  him  while 
he  dodged  from  the  room  with  a  joyous  ha !  ha ! 

The  greatest  factor  in  the  education  of  a  child,  and  the  most  im- 
portant element  in  the  development  of  character  in  children,  is 
the  confidence  that  we  show  them;  for  the  confidence  reposed  by 
others  in  us  determines  the  estimate  that  we  place  upon  ourselves. 
To  believe  in  a  child  is  to  beget  self-confidence  in  that  child. 

After  we  are  older,  and  have  had  more  experience  in  the  world, 
we  are  able  to  excuse  ignorance,  and  we  crave  the  confidence  only 
of  the  best  people.  By  this  we  estimate  ourselves,  but  in  children 
the  love  and  confidence,  and  expressed  appreciation,  of  those  near- 
est and  most  closely  related  is  the  most  powerful  factor  in  the 
development  and  growth  of  all  the  latent  elements  of  manhood  and 
womanhood. 

Children  easily  enter  into  sympathy  with  those  with  whom  they 
are  constantly  associated,  and  the  blighting  influence  of  a  home  in 
which  violent  displays  of  temper  are  made,  or  hysterical  conduct 
in  any  form  is  exhibited,  is  harmful  to  both  the  mental  and  physical 
development  of  children.  Here  they  unconsciously  acquire  habits 
that  frequently  last  them  through  life. 

In  the  use  of  suggestion  upon  children  for  the  correction  of  vice 
and  the  cure  of  evil  habits,  moral  perversions,  etc.,  both  with  and 
without  hypnotism,  no  rule  can  be  given  that  will  apply  to  all 
children  alike.  One  must  know  children  and  deal  with  each  one 
according  to  his  or  her  own  individuality,  first  securing  their  con- 
fidence. They  are  very  suggestible  without  hypnotism,  and  easily 
come  under  any  influence  by  those  who  have  their  confidence. 

In  one  of  our  large  cities  a  revival  meeting  was  conducted  by 
an  advertising  revivalist  under  the  auspices  of  several  of  the  lead- 
ing orthodox  churches,  and  his  text  for  seven  days  was,  "Hell,  the 
kind  of  place  it  is  and  who  is  going  there."  The  physicians  of  that 
city  were  more  than  ordinarily  busy  during  this  period  on  account 


SUGGESTION    IN   EDUCATION. 

of  the  psychoneurotic  condition  induced  by  the  fear  that  such 
preaching  had  implanted  in  the  minds  of  unthinking  men  and 
women. 

At  one  of  their  special  services  for  children,  held  by  the  revivalist 
during  the  latter  part  of  his  stay  in  that  city,  only  "workers" 
were  invited  besides  the  children,  thus  securing  such  an  environ- 
ment and  suggestive  influence  that  hundreds  of  children,  who  were 
incapable  of  thinking  and  reasoning  for  themselves,  were  coerced 
into  joining  the  church.  Under  these  circumstances  children  are 
unconsciously  molded  into  a  particular  line  of  religious  belief  which 
reflects  the  opinions  of  their  parents  or  the  makers  of  their  church 
creed,  and  under  this  influence  they  are  reared  and  educated.  The 
power  of  choice  is  denied  them,  and  they  grow  into  manhood  and 
womanhood  stamped  as  if  they  were  so  many  bricks. 

We  might  as  well  expect  to  make  a  race  horse  out  of  a  colt  that 
had  been  imprisoned  in  a  stable  all  his  life,  as  to  expect  children 
reared  under  such  an  environment  to  become  broad-minded,  truth- 
loving  men  and  women.  As  self-conscious,  independent  entities, 
they  are  not  allowed  to  .think  for  themselves,  and,  failing  to  exercise 
their  intellectual  faculties,  their  minds  become  dwarfed  and  useless. 
How  many  people  are  born  and  reared  under  such  an  enforced  en- 
vironment, from  which  they  are  never  able  to  extricate  themselves ! 
They  acquire  a  one-sided  way  of  seeing  things,  and  such  mental 
processes,  continuously  indulged  in,  form  habits,  and  such  mental 
habits  form  fixed  psychophysiological  complexes  in  the  brain  plasm 
to  the  extent  that  it  becomes  impossible  for  the  individual  to  think 
or  believe  any  other  way. 

Mental  faculties  are  mainly  acquired,  and  are  the  product  of 
environment  and  education.  Chief  among  these  are  memory, 
imagination,  speech,  knowledge,  conception,  judgment,  will,  and 
reason.  Reason  is  mankind's  highest,  truest,  noblest  faculty,  but 
it  is  able  to  draw  conclusions  only  from  the  light  of  experience. 

Many  advanced  thinkers  believe  that  "the  will  is  higher  than 
the  mind,  and  that  its  rightful  prerogative  is  to  govern  and  direct 
the  mind  just  as  it  is  the  prerogative  for  the  mind  to  govern  and 
direct  the  body."  This  seems  to  be  true  when  we  see  an  individ- 
ual using  his  entire  mental  equipment  at  a  given  salary  to  promul- 


386  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

gate  a  fixed  religious  dogma,  or  when  ' '  a  lawyer  receives  a  retainer 
and  commands  his  mind  forthwith  to  busy  itself  with  all  its  re- 
sources of  reasoning  and  persuasion  for  the  party  who  pays  him. 
Even  his  emotions  from  the  extremes  of  pathos  to  those  of  indig- 
nation may  he  pressed  into  the  service  as  well. ' ' * 

There  are  others  who  deny  that  there  is  such  a  faculty  as  ' '  will, ? ' 
who  take  the  position  that  mankind  is  impelled  to  action  by  desire 
and  held  in  restraint  by  fear,  and  between  desire  and  fear  each 
human  being  stands. 

Yet  even  will,  desire,  and  fear  are  only  qualities  of  the  individ- 
ual body  and  mind,  and  they  conform  to  the  general  law  of  evolu- 
tion, being  the  outcome  of  heredity,  environment,  and  education. 
The  logical  conclusion,  then,  is  that  each  human  being  is  what  he 
is  by  the  operation  of  the  same  infallible  law  that  moves  the  earth 
around  the  sun  and  that  controls  the  stars. 

People  mean  to  do  well.  They  are  seeking  happiness  as  best 
they  know  how,  according  to  their  instinctive  impulses  inherent 
within  the  protoplasmic  mechanism  of  the  physical  organism,  modi- 
fied or  guided  by  knowledge  and  experience. 

Some  of  the  greatest,  noblest,  truest  characters  that  exist  in  the 
world  today  are  clergymen,  who  are  so  far  in  advance  of  the  creed 
of  the  church  under  whose  jurisdiction  they  are  laboring  that  they 
have  become  a  law  unto  themselves.  They  have  been  impelled  by 
desire  to  do  that  which  is  right,  and  useful,  and  true  until  they 
are  found  standing  in  orthodox  pulpits,  fearlessly  doing  all  within 
their  power  to  liberate  men  and  women  from  the  tyranny  of  creeds 
and  dogmas,  ignorance  and  superstition,  through  which  all  creeds 
have  been  evolved.  They  are  interpreting  the  problems  of  life  in 
the  light  of  present-day  knowledge,  and  eagerly  seeking  the  con- 
tributions shed  upon  the  pathway  of  human  endeavor  and  achieve- 
ment by  the  light  of  science. 

"To  live  by  science  requires  intelligence  and  faith,  but  not  to 
live  by  it  is  folly."  Men  stand  where  they  are  in  the  world  today 
held  by  the  tyranny  of  fear  and  ignorance,  unless  liberated  by 
knowledge  and  experience.  Frequently  physicians  who  stand  high 
in  the  medical  profession  have  said  to  me  frankly  and  honestly 


'Thompson:      Brain  and  Personality. 


SUGGESTION    IN    EDUCATION.  387 

that  they  felt  the  necessity  of  a  more  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
theories  and  methods  of  using  psychotherapeutics,  but  they  "were 
afraid  their  practices  would  be  ruined  if  the  people  should  find  it 
out."  When  such  men  are  teachers  in  our  medical  colleges,  their 
pupils  bear  the  stamp  of  moral  weakness  upon  their  professional 
characters.  They  are  the  legitimate  product  of  weakness  and  fear 
as  manifested  in  the  personality  of  a  physician. 

A  most  valuable  part  of  education  is  the  incentives  and  intel- 
lectual ideals  implanted  through  personal  association. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

SELF-MASTERY  AS  A  FINE  ART. 

"Man  exists  .  .  .  not  for  what  he  can  accomplish,  but  for  what  can  be 
accomplished  of  him." — Gb'the. 

By  suggestion  we  can  add  a  dynamic  quality  to  the  mental  equip- 
ment of  an  individual  who  is  receptive.  A  new  element  is  given 
to  his  personality  by  the  impression  made  upon  his  brain  plasm, 
which  better  equips  him  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  life,  and  whereby 
he  can  be  educated  into  the  art  of  self-mastery. 

A  little  child,  seven  years  old,  was  beginning  her  first  day  in 
school,  and  appeared  bewildered  and  confused  as  she  anticipated 
the  new  experiences  that  the  day  had  in  store  for  her.  As  she 
started  out  of  the  home  her  father,  who  was  awaiting  the  arrival  of 
the  right  psychological  moment,  called  her  to  him. 

"Papa,  mamma  says  I  must  hurry,  or  I  shall  be  late,"  responded 
the  child  as  she  came  up  closer  to  find  out  what  her  father  wanted. 

''You  have  plenty  of  time,  my  daughter,"  said  he.  "I  have  a 
secret  to  tell  you  if  you  will  promise  not  to  tell  anybody.  Do  you 
know  there  is  not  a  smarter  child  in  this  town  than  you  are  ? ' ' 

' '  No,  papa,  I  did  not  know  that. ' ' 

''Well,  there  is  not,  and  I  will  show  you.  Who  can  run  faster 
than  you  among  your  little  friends?" 

' '  None  of  them, ' '  was  her  answer. 

"Who  rides  a  wheel  or  plays  dolls  better  than  you?" 

"None,"  she  answered. 

"Well,  here  is  our  secret.  They  can  not  learn  faster  in  school 
than  you  can.  They  are  all  smart,  but  they  don 't  know  it.  The 
girl  that  does  what  her  teacher  tells  her  is  the  one  that  learns  the 
fastest.  Now,  that  is  our  secret.  You  go  and  find  out  what  your 
lesson  is,  and  come  home  and  we  will  help  you  to  study,  and  by  the 
end  of  the  term  you  will  be  at  the  head  of  your  class." 

388 


SELF-MASTERY    AS   A   FINE   ART.  :{,VJ 

The  child.'s  answer  was,  "All  right,  papa ;  if  you  will  help  me,  yes 
I  will." 

"Go  to  school  now,  you  have  plenty  of  time,  but  don't  tell  any- 
body  our  secret." 

The  child  walked  away  with  a  new  element  added  to  her  con- 
sciousness. She  went  with  head  erect,  and  a  smile  on  her  face  that 
indicated  that  she  was  going  out  to  conquer.  Of  course,  this  was 
followed  by  other  similar  suggestions,  and  during  the  eight  years 
since  that  time  that  little  girl  has  stood  at  the  head  of  her  classes 
and  found  in  her  school  work  a  genuine  pleasure. 

In  another  instance  a  child,  thirteen  years  of  age,  was  competing 
for  a  prize  given  in  elocution.  Her  father  had  also  offered  her  a 
reward,  and  expressed  a  wish  that  she  win  that  medal.  She  had 
worked  hard  to  succeed,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  contest  the 
father  called  her  into  his  den  and  handed  her  the  promised  reward 
for  winning  the  contest. 

"But,"  said  she,  "I  haven't  won  it  yet." 

"See  here,  daughter,"  was  his  response,  "I  know,  and  your 
teacher  knows,  that  you  render  that  selection  aright.  Now,  it 
matters  not  one  bit  what  the  judges  or  the  audience  think  of  it. 
Go,  render  your  selection  to  suit  yourself  and  to  do  credit  to  your 
teacher,  but  forget  all  about  the  prize  or  the  opinion  of  the  judges." 

She  went  away  relieved  of  all  apparent  anxiety,  and  shared  the 
prize  with  an  older  contestant. 

The  question  of  self-mastery  is  one  of  education  and  self-de- 
velopment. By  suggestion  we  can  plant  ideas  that  give  rise  to 
impulses  or  incentives  within  the  individual  to  make  effort  at  self- 
development,  self-education,  and  self-control. 

Every  one  should  be  made  to  feel  that  he  is  born  to  be  of  use  in 
the  world  and  should  be  taught  how  to  exercise  his  capacity,  for 
it  is  only  through  the  self-reliance  gained  by  our  own  activities 
that  we  can  make  a  success  in  any  vocation  in  life.  The  individual 
who  can  be  of  most  help  to  others  is  the  one  who  sees  the  greatest 
possibilities  within  them. 

The  problem  of  life  for  every  individual  is  the  one  of  self-mastery 
— how  best  to  conserve  and  direct  our  energies  into  useful,  whole- 


390  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

some  lines  of  thought  and  action.  To  be  of  help  to  others,  one 
must  at  least  in  some  degree  have  become  master  of  one's  self. 

It  has  been  a  matter  of  observation  to  see  a  physician  so  utterly 
lacking  in  self-control  that  he  was  incapacitated  to  use  efficacious 
suggestion  upon  an  individual,  even  after  the  latter  had  assumed 
an  attitude  of  voluntary  receptivity.  In  him  the  self-conscious  ego 
had  not  been  evolved  sufficiently  to  give  him  force  of  character  to 
be  of  influence. 

It  is  for  each  one  of  us  to  decide  whether  we  shall  control  and 
govern  ourselves  in  the  light  of  reason,  education,  and  experience, 
or  be  held  by  the  opinions  of  others.  To  do  our  best  in  life,  we 
must  be  independent,  strong,  capable,  and  free. 

The  leaders  of  -all  professions  in  all  ages  have  been  men  who  have 
overleaped  the  limitations  of  environment,  of  ignorance  and  super- 
stition, and  have  dared  to  stand  up  for  what  they  believed  to  be 
right. 

To  have  achieved  self-mastery  is  to  be  guided  by  reason,  im- 
pelled by  truth,  and  freed  from  the  tyranny  of  fear,  selfishness, 
and  ignorance.  It  denotes  courage,  humble  service,  magnanimity, 
sympathy,  friendliness,  and  a  tenacious  stand  for  the  right.  To 
reach  this  high  ideal  of  moral  attainment,  human  evolution  must 
go  on  forever.  We  are  as  yet  in  the  ameba  and  moneron  stage  of 
our  appreciation  of  this  higher  conception  of  ourselves  and  our 
relation  to  others. 

"With  this  poor  life,  with  this  mean  world 

I'd  fain  complete  what  in  me  lies; 
I  strive  to  perfect  this — my  me; 
My  sole  ambition's  to  be  wise." 

Fear  is  the  natural  consequence  of  weakness  and  ignorance.  To 
be  masters  of  our  bodies  does  not  mean  that  the  physical  basis  of 
existence  is  to  be  ignored.  Far  from  it.  On  the  other  hand,  to 
maintain  a  strong,  healthy  body  is  the  first  essential  to  develop- 
ment. Will  power  and  determination  are  natural  accompaniments 
of  a  healthy  organism. 

There  is  a  peculiar  psychic  quality  that  is  the  heritage  of  some 
individuals.  They  are  content  to  drift  with  the  crowd,  and  have 
not  the  courage  to  dare  to  use  their  own  reasoning  faculties.  The 


SELF-MASTERY   AS   A   PINE   ART.  391 

problem  of  education  is  to  deliver  these  individuals  from  such 
tendencies  and  thus  to  prevent  them  from  lapsing  into  physical 
weaklings,  mental  nonentities,  or  moral  cowards. 

It  is  the  inalienable  birthright  of  every  human  being  to  manifest 
the  highest  expression  of  individuality  and  selfhood — to  give  the 
world  the  very  best  that  he  can  make  of  himself  according  to  the 
limitations  of  heredity,  environment,  and  education.  Fear  and 
selfishness  are  the  greatest  barriers  to  the  progress  of  aspiring 
humanity. 

The  "thou  shalt"  and  "thou  shalt  not"  of  an  irresponsible  hier- 
archy no  longer  fetters  the  spirit  of  the  man  who  has  obtained  suf- 
ficient self-mastery  to  live  up  to  the  light  and  knowledge  of  the 
present  age. 

But  not  for  ourselves  alone  must  we  live.  We  gain  in  strength 
by  helping  others,  by  assuming  responsibility,  by  work  and  useful 
achievement. 

A  great  deal  of  the  hysteria  and  neurasthenia,  and  despondency 
and  weakness,  of  men  and  women  is  due  to  their  failure  to  exer- 
cise sufficient  self-mastery — to  use  the  powers  and  capabilities  in- 
herent within  the  cells  of  their  organism.  Such  people  we  can 
wonderfully  benefit  by  suggestion. 

Medicine  will  ever  have  a  place  in  our  therapeutic  armamen- 
tarium, but  it  is  a  crime  to  use  it  to  relieve  nervousness  and  psycho- 
neurotic  and  functional  disturbances,  by  lulling  and  inhibiting  the 
normal  physiological  processes,  where  the  individual  should  be 
taught  the  art  of  self-mastery,  self-control,  self-activity,  and  con- 
formity to  such  physiological  methods  of  development  as  breathing, 
relaxation,  dietetics,  water  drinking,  exercise,  and  work,  with  sun- 
shine, fresh  air,  and  cheerfulness. 

The  use  of  suggestion  in  therapeutics  is  nothing  more  or  less 
than  getting  an  individual  to  exercise  self-mastery  and  self-control. 

Here  I  am. reminded  of  a  stalwart  man,  six  feet  two  inches  high, 
weighing  one  hundred  and  ninety-eight  pounds,  who  had  a  wife 
and  two  children  in  another  portion  of  his  state,  while  he  was  be- 
ing supported  by  his  brother,  and  all  the  while  nursing  and  en- 
couraging  a  psychoneurotic  condition.  His  physician  informed 
me  of  this  element  of  sloth  and  laziness  that  was  a  great  factor 


392  SUGGESTIVE   THERAPEUTICS. 

in  his  case,  besides  his  morbid  self-consciousness,  and  sought  my 
aid  to  arouse  him  from  such  psychic  incumbrances  and  put  him  in 
possession  of  himself. 

He  came  into  the  office  walking  with  a  cane,  and,  besides  his 
symptoms  of  indigestion  and  insomnia,  lie  complained  of  a  con- 
stantly painful  and  weak  back. 

My  treatment  was  to  give  such  suggestions  as  to  drive  back  his 
morbid  existing  sense  impressions.  To  substitute  a  new  con- 
sciousness, he  was  placed  with  head  on  one  chair  and  heels  on  an- 
other, and  made  to  sustain  my  weight  of  two  hundred  pounds  upon 
his  body.  Then,  looking  him  in  the  face  after  he  was  awakened, 
I  informed  him  frankly  and  honestly  of  the  test  we  had  made  and 
assured  him  that  a  stronger  man  did  not  exist  in  his  state,  that  all 
he  needed  was  exercise,  and  that  the  right  thing  for  him  to  do  was 
to  go  to  work.  I  met  him  upon  his  own  plane — that  of  a  physical 
laborer — and  used  such  methods  as  would  most  convince  him  that  he 
was  a  man,  and  he  appreciated  it.  He  did  go  to  work  and  had  no 
further  trouble. 

Such  harsh  treatment  is  not  applicable  in  private  practice,  but, 
when  I  see  people  whining  and  complaining,  and  morbidly  self- 
conscious  of  their  own  life's  battles,  I  can  only  wish  that  they 
could  be  aroused  in  some  way  and  be  made  to  see  the  pleasure,  and 
beauty,  and  glory  of  work. 

Upon  the  exercise  of  our  own  self-activity  does  the  welfare  of 
the  future  race  depend.  The  intellectual  world  brings  life's  great- 
est pleasures,  but,  as  we  now  understand  it,  the  head  and  hands  must 
be  educated  together.  Mental  and  physical  development  must  go 
hand  in  hand. 

When  wealth  causes  the  individual  to  depend  upon  the  physical 
and  mental  efforts  of  others  to  do  for  him  what  he  should  do  for 
himself,  it  is  a  means  of  degeneration  and  weakness. 

It  is  all  a  question  of  mental  attitude.  We  must  ever  press  on- 
ward for  the  acquirement  of  more  knowledge,  the  discovery  of 
new  truths,  and  for  facts  revealed  by  new  experiences.  We  must 
never  be  willing  to  accept  as  a  finality  the  imperfection  of  present 
attainments. 

To  be  glad  to  live  for  life's  own  sake,  to  love  and  to  help  others 


SELF-MASTERY   AS   A   FINE   AKT.  393 

for  the  pleasure  it  gives  us,  and  in  our  own  humble  way  to  crown 
our  lives  with  useful  endeavor  and  achievement,  leaves  no  excuse 
for  the  question,  Is  life  worth  while? 

It  never  becomes  stale,  flat,  and  unprofitable,  save  as  it  reflects 
our  own  stupidity. 


INDEX. 


Abnormal  complex,  47 

Abuse  of  personality  of  physician,  359 

of  suggestion,  59 
Acquisitions,  intellectual,  48 

physiological,  48 

Acute  diseases,  psychotherapy  in,  140 
Adenoids,    example    of    hypnotism    in 

operation  for,  195 
Adjunct,  suggestion  as,  to  anesthesia, 

228 
Alcoholism,  example  of  hypnotism  in, 

201,  224 

Alteration,  thought  as  factor  in  physi- 
ological,  111 
Amputation,    example    of    hypnotism 

in,  191 
Amusement,  hypnotism  not  used  for, 

224 

suggestion  not  used  for,  224 
Anabolism,  optimism  conduces  to,  97 
Analysis  of  personality,  112 
Anesthesia,  cause  of  mortality  in,  232 
mortality  from   chloroform,  229 

from  ether,  229 
produced  by  suggestion,  73 
suggestion  as  adjunct  to,  228 
in  chloroform,  238,  240 
in  surgical,  235 
surgical,  with  ether  and  suggestion, 

237 
Anesthetics,    physiological    action    of, 

232 
Anorexia,    example   of   psychotherapy 

in,  212 

Anthropomorphic  theism,  125 
Appendicitis,    neurasthenia    as    cause 

of,  41 

psychasthenia  as  cause  of,  41 
Applicability  of  psychotherapy  in  med- 
ical practice,  28 

Application  of  psychotherapy,  require- 
ments of,  326 

psychotherapy  of    universal,  24 
Arm,  stiffening  of,  by  suggestion^  V 
Armamentarium  of  physician,  127 


ra 


Association   method    as   affecting  the 

ego,  315 
example  of,  308 
Jung's,  217,  305 
philosophy  of,  314 
philosophy  of  Jung's,  308 
of  ideas,  47 
Attendant,  example  of  personality  of, 

360 

Autosuggestion,  basis  for,  318 
mental  effect  of,  319 
philosophy  of,  318 
physical  effect  of,  321 
Awakening  interest  in  psychotherapy, 
21 


B 


Basis  for  autosuggestion,  318 
Beastiality  in  sexual  instinct,  274 
Bisexual  elements  of  parents  in  child, 

304 
Bleeding,  prevention  of,  by  suggestion, 

80,  93 

Bodily     function,     suggestion     stimu- 
lates, 331 
Body,  evolution  of,  121 

mind  and,  in  psychotherapy,  37 
sticking  pin  in,  by  suggestion,   79, 

81 

stiffening  of,  by  suggestion,  80 
Bright's  disease,  psychotherapy  in,  54 
Broca's  convolutions,  88 
Bronchitis,  example  of  hypnotism  in, 

189 
Brutality    of    frankness,    example    of, 

368 

of  physician,  368 
Business,    personality    of    person    as 

factor  in,  354 


Cat,  example  of  dream  analysis  about, 

313 

Catabolism,  effect  of  mind  on,  66 
pessimism  conduces  to,  97 


397 


398 


INDEX. 


Catheterization,    example    of    hypno- 
tism in,  184 

Cause  of  mortality  in  anesthesia,  232 
Cell   function,   psychotherapy  as   con- 
trolling, 40 

Cervix,  example  of  suggestion  in  lac- 
erated, 241 

Character,  effect  of  suggestion  on,  60 
Charlatan,  occasion  for,   110 
Charlatanism,  occasion  for,  65 
Child,  bisexual  elements  of  parents  in, 

304 

influence  of  parent  on,  382 
of  religious  emotion  on,  384 
of  suggestion  on,  382 
Chloroform       anesthesia,       mortality 

from,  229 

suggestion  in,  238,  240 
physiological  action  of,  231 
Christian  science,  effect  of  suggestion 

in,  62 

effects  of,  23 
fallacy  of,  328 
mistakes  of,  327 
occasion  for,  52 
principle  of,  319 
psychotherapeutic  value  of,   135 
source  of  membership  of,  337 
suggestion  as  factor  in,  154 
scientist,  occasion  for,  24 
Chronic  cases,  psychotherapy  in,  55 
Circumcision,    example   of    suggestion 

in,  240 
Circumstances    form    religious    belief, 

338 
Clay     pills,    example    of    suggestion 

with,  131 
Commercialism     of    physicians,     375, 

378 
Complex,  abnormal,  47 

normal,  47 
Confidence,     self-suggestion     requires, 

145 
Conscious,  definition  of,  52 

mind  amenable  to  suggestion,  91 
definition  of,  88 
function  of,  91 

Consciousness  as  a  factor,  119 
Consent   necessary   for   hypnotization, 

63,  83,  117 
Conservation  of  energy,  340 

philosophy  of,  340 
Contentment  as  aid  to  health,  349 
Convolutions,  Broca's,  88 
Co-operation   of   patient   as   factor   in 

therapeutics,   345 

Correct  diagnosis  as  safeguard,  326 
Correctness  of  psychotherapeutic  diag- 
nosis, 218 
Corset  as  factor  in  morbidity,  346 


Cosmos  as  an  organism,  113 

compared  with  man,  113 
Curative  agent,  psychotherapy  as,  42 


D 


Definition  of  conscious,  52 

of  conscious  mind,  88 

of  disease,  128 

of  fear,  125 

of  force  in  man,  117 

of  hypnotic   suggestion,  62 

of  hypnotism,   89,   162 

of  hypnotized  subject,  76 

of  knowledge,  112 

of  mind,  87 

of  personal  magnetism,  102 

of  post-hypnotic  suggestion,  104 

of  psychic  trauma,  288 

of  psychoanalysis,  288 

of  psychotherapy,  21,  48",  54 

of  subconscious,  52 

of  subconscious  mind,  90 

of  stimulus  words,  306 

of  suggestion,  60,  130 

of  suggestive  therapeutics,  110 
Deleterious    effect    of    religious    emo- 
tion, 335 

hypnotism  not,  224 
Demonstration  of  hypnotism,  69 
Demonstrator,   efficacy  of  psychother- 
apy depends  on,  25 
Dental  surgery,  example  of  hypnotism 

in,  195 
Dentistry,   example   of  suggestion   in, 

228 
Depressant,    personality   of   physician 

as,   142 

Development  of  nervous  system,  51 
Diagnosis,   correctness   of   psychother- 
apeutic, 218 

example  of  incorrect,  329,  330 
Diet  for  mental  development,  346 

for  physical  development,  346 
Diphtheria,    improper   use   of   sugges- 
tion in,  327 
Disease,  definition  of,  128 

education  as  preventive  of,  217 

pessimism  conduces  to,  111 

suggestion  in  incurable,  373 

vis  medicatrix  naturae  in,  40 
Diseases  of  mental  origin,  23 

psychotherapy  in  acute,  140 

in  mental,  27 
Dissociation  of  ideas,  48 

of  personality,  107 
Divine   healing,    suggestion   as   factor 

in,  154 
Dogmas,  evolution  and,  125 


INDEX. 


399 


Dogmatism  of  medicine,  126 

of  theology,   126 

Dream    analysis    as    factor    in    psy- 
choanalysis, 311 
as  factor  in  suggestion,  312 
example  of,  about  cat,  313 
about  parturition,  313 
about  snake,  312 

E 

Education    as    factor   in    physical    de- 
velopment,  381 

as  factor  in  sexual  instinct,  269,  276 
as  preventive  of  disease,  277 
instead  of  medicine,  380 
suggestion  in,  381 
Educational    measure,    psychotherapy 

as,  33 

Effect  of  Christian  science,  23 
of  emotion  on  organs,   108 
of  hypnotism   on  subject,  81 
of  mental  attitude  of  patient,  143 
of  mental  healing,  23 
of  mind  on  catabolism,  66 

on  metabolism,  66 
of  self-suggestion   on   physiognomy, 

110 
of  suggestion   in   Christian   science, 

62 

on  character,  60 
Efficacy  of  psychotherapy  depends  on 

demonstrator,  25 
doubted,  238 
of   suggestion,   hypnotism   as   proof 

of,  69 
Ego,   association  method   as   affecting 

the,  315 
in  man,  114 

Emanuel  movement,  occasion  for,  52 
Emanuelists,    psychotherapy    as    em- 
ployed by,   136 

Emotion,  effect  of,  on  organs,  108 
religion  as  factor  in  hysterical,  302 
religious,  and  sexual  instinct,   123 
subconscious  mind  the  seat  of,  108 
Employment    of    psychotherapy   with- 
out  knowledge,    131,    132,    133, 
134 

Energy,  conservation  of,  340 
Environment    as    factor    in    neurosis, 

293,  302 

as  factor  in  sexual  instinct,  269 
in  therapeutics,  364 
7iiind  affected  by,  89 
physician  as  factor  in,  366 
Epilepsy,  psychotherapy  in,  213 

symptoms  mistaken  for,  213 
Erotic   emotion,   religious   emotion   as 
factor  in,  334 


Essentials  for  the  patient,  345 
Ether   and   suggestion,  surgical  anes- 
thesia with,  237 

anesthesia,  mortality  from,  229 
physiological  action  of,  231 
Ethical    consideration    of    sexual    in- 
stinct, 266 

Etiologic  factor,  pessimism  as,  97 
Evolution  and  dogmas,  125 
of  body,  121 
of  mind,  121 

psychotherapy  the  result  of,  57 
Example  of  association  method,  308 
of  brutality  of  frankness,  368 
of  dream  analysis  about  cat,  313 

about  parturition,   313 

about  snake,  312 
of  effect  of  mental  relief,  160 
of  hypnotic  suggestion,  74,  77,  78 
of  hypnotism    in    alcoholism,    201, 
224 

in  amputation,  191 

in  bronchitis,  189 

in  catheterization,  184 

in  dental  surgery,  195 

in  fibroid  tumor,  183 

in  gonorrhea,  168 

in  hysteria,  192 

in  indigestion,  187 

in  insomnia,  197 

in  menorrhagia,  183 

in  migraine,  172 

in  morphin  habit,  184 

in  nocturnal  enuresis,  177 

in  obstetric  anesthesia,  177 

in  operation  for  adenoids,  195 

in  psychical  impotency,  196 

in  psycholepsy,  168 

in  psychoneurasthenia,  198 

in  psychoneurology,  176 

in  psychoneurotic  indigestion,  175 

in  psychoneurotic  paralysis,  173 

in  pulmonary  tuberculosis,  203 

in  retention  of  urine,  184 

in  retroverted  uterus,  178 

in  sciatica,  188 

in  supraorbital  neuralgia,  200 

in  suprapubic  cystotomy,  194 

in  urethritis,  182 

in  vomiting,  174 

in  vomiting  of  pregnancy,   199 
of  incorrect  diagnosis,  329,   330 
of  lack  of  moral  stamina,  375 

of  self-mastery,  391 
of  personality  of  attendant,  360 

of  physician,  356,  360 
of  pre-hypnotic  suggestion,   73,   77 
of  psychotherapy  in  anorexia,   2!  2 

in  gastritis,  216 

in  grand  mal,  213 


400 


INDEX. 


Example  of  psychotherapy — cont'd. 

in  insomnia,  223 

in  migraine,  209 

in  neurasthenia,   105,  214,   217 

in  obsessions,  210,  212,  226 

in  pain  in  head,  215 

in  paralysis,  215 

in  pneumonia,  141 

in  psychasthenia,  211 

in  sticking  pin  into  skin,   221 

in  utero-ovarian  disease,  211 
of  suggestion  as  soporific,  150 

in  affection  of  skin,  372 

in  bronchitis,  370 

in  circumcision,  240 

in  dentistry,  228 

in  exhaustion,  148 

in  gastroenterocolitis,  369 

in  lacerated  cervix,  241 

in  mental  development,  388 

in  morbid  consciousness,  158 

in  nephritis,  368 

in  neurasthenia,  151 

in  neuritis,  372 

in  parturition,  249 

in  pleuritis,  151 

in  stiff  arm,  143 

in  stiff  body,  144 

in  stiff  limb,  138 

in  surgery,  229 

in  warts,  145 

on  music  band,  98 

to  hypnotized  subject,  75 

with  clay  pills,  131 

with  lemon,  98,  130 
of  telepathy,  100 
of  thought  transference,  100 
Exhaustion,  example  of  suggestion  in, 

148 
Expectant   mother,    psychotherapy   in 

relation  to,  243 

Experiences,  memory  reproduces,  50 
nervous  system  reproduces,  38,  45, 

117,  131 
Extreme    illness,     psychotherapy     in, 

371 
procedure  in,  371 


Faith  cure,   suggestion   as  factor   in, 

154 

Fallacy  of  Christian  science,  328 
Fine  art,   self-mastery   as,  388 
Fear,  definition  of,  125 
Fevers,  suggestion  in,  139 
Fibroid  tumor,  example  of  hypnotism 

in,  183 

Field  of  psychotherapy,  112 
Force,  definition  of,  in  man,  117 


Foundation   of  rational   therapeutics, 

207,  218 

of  sexual  instinct,  262 
Frankness,  brutality  of,  of  physician, 

368 
Freud's     psychoanalysis,     technic    of, 

295 
psychology,   288 

philosophy  of,  297 
scientific  psychotherapy,  290 
sexual  theories,  293 
Function  of  conscious  mind,  91 
of  psychotherapy,   46 
of  subconscious  mind,  92 
Functional      activity,      psychotherapy 

increases,   43 
disorders,   premature  orgasm   cause 

of,  262 
stimulant,  water  as,  346 


Q 


Gallstones,  improper  use  of  suggestion 
in,   328 

Gastritis,    example    of    psychotherapy 
in,  216 

Gastroenterocolitis,    example    of    sug- 
gestion in,  369 
improper  use  of  suggestion  in,  328 

General     practitioner,     psychotherapy 

an  ally  of  the,  41 
utility  of  suggestion,  55 

Gonorrhea,  example  of  hypnotism  in, 
168 

Grand  mal,  example  of  psychotherapy 
in,  213 

Guidance  of  sexual  instinct,  255 


H 


Habit,  overeating  as,  342 
religious  emotion  as,  342 
use  of  tobacco  as,  342 

of  whisky  as,  342 
Health,  contentment  as  aid  to,  349 
medicine  as  aid  to,   349 
optimism  conduces  to,  111 
relation  of  philosophy  to,  332 

of  religion  to,  332 
relaxation  as  aid  to,  351 
religious  training  as  impediment  to, 

337 

roughing  it  as  means  of,  347 
self-control  as  factor  in,  346 
self-reliance  as  factor  in,  323 
Heredity  as  factor  in  sexual  instinct, 

268 

Hot  brick  as  factor  in  suggestion,  366 
Hypnoidization  of  Sidis,  313 


INDEX. 


401 


Hypnotic  suggestion,  definition  of,  62 
example  of,  74,  77,  78 
ignorance  of,  69 
philosophy  of,  219 
treatment,   166 
effect  of,  167 
Hypnotism    as    proof    of    efficacy    of 

suggestion,  69 
definition  of,  89,  162 
demonstration  of,  69 
effect  of,  on  subject,  81 
example  of,  in  alcoholism,  201,  224 
in  amputation,  191 
in  bronchitis,  189 
in  catheterization.  184 
in  fibroid  tumor,  183 
in  gonorrhea,  168" 
in  hysteria,  192 
in  dental  surgery,  195 
in  indigestion,  187 
in  insomnia,  197 
in  menorrhagia,  183 
in  migraine,   172 
in  morphin  habit,  184 
in  nocturnal  enuresis,  177 
in  obstetric  anesthesia,  177 
^_J1L  operation  for  adenoids,   195 
in  psychical  impotency,   196 
in  psyrholepsy,   168 
in  psychoneurasthenia,  198 
in  psychoneurology,  176 
in  psychoneurotic  indigestion,  175 
in  psychoneurotic  paralysis,  173 
in  pulmonary  tuberculosis,  203 
in  retention  of  urine,   184 
in  retroverted  uterus,  178 
in  sciatica,  188 
in  supraorbital  neuralgia,  200 
in  suprapubic  cystotomy,  194 
in  urethritis,  182 
in  vomiting,  174 
in  vomiting  of  pregnancy,  199 
in  insomnia,  165 
in  nausea,  246 
in  sleep,  54 
in  vomiting,  246 
not  deleterious,  224 
not  used  for  amusement,  224 
therapeutically  applied,  162 
Hypnotization,  consent  necessary  for, 

63,  83,   117 
method  of,  117 

Hypnotized  subject,  definition  of,  76 
example  of  suggestion  to,  75 
waking,   81 
Hysteria,    example    of   hvpnotism    in, 

192 

symptoms  mistaken  for,  213 
Hysterical  emotion,  religion  as  factor 
in,  302 


Ideal  of  man,  woman's,  275 

of  woman,  man's,  275 
Ideals,  persons  assimilate,  355 
Ideas,  association  of,  47 

dissociation  of,  48 
Ignorance  as  factor  in  masturbation. 

263 

of  hypnotic  suggestion,  69 
Impotency,  masturbation  as  cause  of, 

263 
example  of  hypnotism  in  psychical, 

196 

Improper  use  of  suggestion  in  diph- 
theria, 327 
in  gallstones,  328 
in  gastroenterocolitis,  328 
in  mastoiditis,  328 
in  rheumatism,  327 
Incorrect  diagnosis,  example  of,  329, 

330 

Increase  of   resistive   power  by   sug- 
gestion, 92 

Incurable  disease,  suggestion  in,   373 
Indication  for  surgery,  137 
Indigestion,  example  of  hypnotism  in, 

187 

Individual  psychology,  22 
Infallible,  physicians  not,  329 
Infection  prevented  by  suggestion,  92 
Influence  of  parent  on  child,  382 
of  religious  emotion  on  child,  384 
of  suggestion  on  child,  382 
Inhibitor,  psychotherapy  as  physical, 

26 

Injury  of  masturbation,  264 
Insanity,    suggestion    in    preventing, 

107 

theory  of,  107 
Insomnia,   example  of  hypnotism   in, 

197 

of  psychotherapy  in,  223 
hypnotism  in,  165 
Instinct,  religious  emotion  and  sexual, 

123 
Intellectual  acquisitions,  48 

plane  of  man,  113 
Intuition,  subconscious  mind  perceives 

by,  99 
Invalid 'wife,  personality  of  physician 

as  factor  in,  .'*.~>7 

Investigation  of  psychotherapy,  28 
Irritations,  operations  for  reflex,  39 


Jealousy  of  neurologists,  296 
Jung's  association  method.  -17. 
philosophy  of.  308 


INDEX. 


Knowledge,  definition  of,  112 
of  psychotherapy,  28 


Lacerated  cervix,  example  of  sugges- 
tion in,  241 

Lack  of  self-mastery,  example  of,  391 

Lemon,  example  of  suggestion  with, 
98,  130 

Life,  mental  attitude  as  factor  in, 
393 

Love  as  foundation  of  marriage,  273 

M 

Magnetic  healer,  occasion  for,  24 

healing,  suggestion  as  factor  in,  154 
Magnetism,  definition  of  personal,  102 
Man,  cosmos  compared  with,  113 
definition  of  force  in,  117 
ego  in,  114 

intellectual  plane  of,  113 
philosophy  of,  87 
physical  plane  of,  113 
spiritual  plane  of,  113 
woman's  ideal  of,  275 
Man's  ideal  of  woman,  275 
Marriage,  love  as  foundation  of,  273 
mistake  of  early,  274 
sensual    intoxication    as    factor    in, 

272 

sexual   instinct  as  incident  in,  274 
Mastoiditis,   improper  use   of   sugges- 
tion in,  328 
Masturbation  as  cause  of  impotency, 

263 

ignorance  as  factor  in,  263 
injury  of,  264 

religious  emotion  as  factor  in,  260 
Measures,  psychotherapeutic,  21 
Medical  colleges,  psychotherapy  in,  43 
practice,    applicability     of    psycho- 
therapy in,  28 
schools,  physiological  psychology  in, 

65 
Medicaments,    psychotherapy    not    to 

supplant  certain,  42 
psychotherapy  to   supplant  certain, 

42 

Medicine  as  aid  to  health,  349 
dogmatism  of,   126 
education  instead  of,  380 
relation    of    psychotherapy   to   gen- 
eral practice  of,  32 
Memory  reproduces  experiences,  50 
subconscious  mind  as  storehouse  of, 
103 


Menorrhagia,    example    of   hypnotism 

in,  183 
Mental  attitude  as  factor  in  life,  393 

of  patient,  effect  of,  143 
causation  and  physical  effects,  23 
development,  diet  for,  346 

example  of  suggestion  in,  388 
suggestion  as  factor  in,  388 
disease,    neurasthenic    symptom    as 

factor  in,  281 
psychotherapy  in,  27 
effect  of  autosuggestion,  319 
equipment  of  physician,  127 
function,  suggestion  stimulates,  331 
healing,  effects  of,  23 
origin,  diseases  of,  23 
relief,  example  of  effect  of,  160 
science,  suggestion  as  factor  in,  154 
states,  recurrent,  107 
stimulus,  psychotherapy  as,  26 
Metabolism,  effect  of  mind  on,  66 
Method  of  employing  suggestion,  72 

of  hypnotization,   117 
Migraine,    example   of   hypnotism    in, 

172 

of  psychotherapy  in,  209 
Mind  affected  by  environment,  89 
and  body  in  psychotherapy,  37 
conscious,   amenable   to   suggestion, 

91 

definition  of,  87 
of  conscious,  88 
of  subconscious,  90 
effect  of,  on  catabolism,  66 

on  metabolism,  66 
evolution  of,  121 
function  of  conscious,  91 

of  subconscious,  92 
subconscious,  amenable  to  self-sug- 
gestion, 110 

amenable  to  suggestion,  91 
as  storehouse  of  memory,  103 
perceives  by  intuition,  99 
the  seat  of  emotion,  108 
Mission  of  physician,  207 
Mistake  of  early  marriage,  274 
Mistakes  of  Christian  science,  327 
Monism  in  psychotherapy,  44 

philosophy  of,   112 
Monogamy    as    factor    in    modifying 

sexual  excesses,  341 
as  ideal  of  sexual  relation,  258 
Monoideaism  in  religion,  334 
Moral  stamina  as  therapeutic  power, 

375 

example  of  lack  of,  375 
Morbid  condition,  suggestion  in  alter- 
ing, 104 

consciousness,    example    of    sugges- 
tion in,  158 


INDEX. 


403 


Morb  id — cont'd . 

suggestion,  effect  of,  138 
Morbidity,  corset  as  factor  in,  346 

worry  as  factor  in,  344 
Morphin  habit,  example  of  hypnotism 

in,    184 

Mortality,  cause  of,  in  anesthesia,  232 
from  chloroform  anesthesia,  229 
from  ether  anesthesia,  229 
Mother,  psychotherapy  in  relation  to 

expectant,  243 

Music  band,  example  of  suggestion  on, 
98 

N 

Nature,    psychotherapy    as    assistant 

to,  36 

Nausea,  hypnotism  in,  246 
Neglect  of  psychotherapy,  30 

of    self-healing    process    of    nature, 

110 
Nephritis,   example   of  suggestion   in, 

368 

Nervous  system,  development  of,  51 
reproduces  experiences,  38,  45,  117, 

131 
Neurasthenia  as  cause  of  appendicitis, 

41 

of  pneumonia,  41 
of  stomach  trouble,  41 
of  tuberculosis,  41 
of  women's  diseases,  41 
example   of   psychotherapy  hi,   105, 

214,  217 

of  suggestion  in,  151 
sexual  instinct  as  factor  in,  147 
Neurasthenic    symptom    as    factor    in 

mental  disease,  281 
Neuritis,    example    of    suggestion    in, 

372 

Neurologists,  jealousy  of,  296 
Neurosis  and  psychosis  basis  of  psy- 
chic action,  44 

environment  as  factor  in,  293,  302 
psychotherapy  as  treatment  in,  303 
repressed   personality  as   factor   in, 

293 

sexuality  as  factor  in,  293 
suggestion  as  treatment  in,  293 
Nocturnal   enuresis,   example   of  hyp- 
notism  in,   177 

Nonpharmaceutic  therapeutics,  135 
Normal  complex,  47 

0 

Object   of  psychoanalysis,  312 
Obsessions,  47 

example   of   psychotherapy   in,   210, 
•212.  226 


Obstetric  anesthesia,  example  of  hyp- 
notism in,  177 
Obstetrics,  psychotherapy  in,  247 

psychologic  factor  in,  247 
Occasion  for  osteopath,  24 

for  charlatan,  110 

for  charlatanism,  65 

for  Christian  science,  52 

for  Christian  scientist,  24 

for  Emanuel  movement,  52 

for  magnetic  healer,  24 
Operations  for  reflex  irritations,  39 
Optimism  as  therapeutic  factor.  97 

conduces  to  anabolism,  97 
to  health,  111 

of  tuberculosis  patients,  109 
Organism,  cosmos  as  an,  113 
Organs,  effect  of  emotion  on,  108 
Osteopath,  occasion  for,  24 

psychotherapy  as  employed  by,  136 
Osteopathy,   suggestion   as    factor   in, 

154 
Overeating  as  habit,  342 

prevalence  of,  379 


Pain  in  head,  example  of  psychother- 
apy in,  215 
Paquelin    cautery    in    psychasthenia. 

226 
Paralysis,   example   of   psychotherapy 

in,  215 
psychic,  138 
Parents,     bisexual     elements     of,     in 

child,  304 

influence  of,  on  child,  382 
Parturition,  example  of  dream  analy- 
sis about,  313 
of  suggestion  in,  249 
technic  of  suggestion  in,  250 
Patient,  co-operation  of,  as  factor  in 

therapeutics,  345 
effect  of  mental  attitude  of,  143 
essentials  for  the,  345 
not  to   suggest  kind   of  treatment, 

223 

Personal  magnetism,  definition  of,  K 
Personality,  analysis  of,  112 
as  factor  in  suggestion,  70 
dissociation  of,  107 
of  attendant,  example  of,  360 
of  person  as  factor  in  business,  354 
of  physician,  227 
abuse  of,  359 
as  depressant,  142 
as  factor  in  invalid  wife,  357 
as  factor  in  therapeutics,  352 
example  of,  356,  360 
Persons  assimilate  ideals,  355 


404 


INDEX. 


Persons — cont'd. 

not    susceptible    to    psychotherapy, 

223 

susceptible  to  psychotherapy,  223 
Pessimism  as  etiologic  factor,  97 
conduces  to  catabolism,  97 

to  disease,  111 

Phagocytic  resistance,  theory  of,  95 
Phenomena,  recognition  of  psychical, 

49 

Philosophy  of  association  method,  314 
of  autosuggestion,  318 
of  conservation  of  energy,  340 
of  Freud's  psychology,  297 
of  hypnotic  suggestion,  219 
of  Jung's   association  method,   308 
of  man,  87 
of  monism,  112 
of  psychoanalysis,  310 
of  psychotherapy,  50,  84,  298,  219, 

239 

of  religion,  333 
of  sexual  instinct,  258 
of  stimulus  words,  306 
of  suggestion,  83 
of  therapeutics,  207 
of  training   subconscious    self,    525 
relation  of,  to  health,  332 
Physical  development,  diet  for,  346 

education  as  factor  in,  381 
effect  of  autosuggestion,  321 
effects,  mental  causation  and,  23 
inhibitor,  psychotherapy  as,  26 
plane  of  man,  113 
therapeutics,    psychotherapy    in    re- 
lation to,  21 
Physician,    abuse    of    personality    of, 

359 

armamentarium  of,  127 
as  factor  in  environment,  366 
as  therapeutic  factor,  95,   102 
brutality  of  frankness  of,  368 
commercialism  of,  375,  378 
example  of  personality  of,  356,  360 
mental  equipment  of,  127 
mission  of,  207 
personality  of,   227 
abuse  of,  359 
as  depressant,  142 
as  factor  in  invalid  wife,  357 
as  factor  in  therapeutics,  352 
psychic  duty  of,  118,  120 
psychotherapy  as  function  of,  59 
self-mastery  as  factor  in,  390 
Physicians  not  infallible,  329 
Physiognomy,  effect  of  self-suggestion 

on,  110 

Physiological  acquisitions,  48 
action  of  anesthetics,  232 
of  chloroform,  231 


Physiological  action — cont'd. 

of  ether,  231 

alteration,  thought  as  factor  in,  111 
manifestation  of  sexual  instinct,  :>71 
psychology,  definition  of,  4!) 

in  medical  schools,  65 
stimulus,  psychotherapy  as,  26 
therapeutics,    psychotherapy    in    re- 
lation to,  21 
Pleuritis,    example    of    suggestion    in, 

151 
Pneumonia,  example  of  psychotherapy 

in,   141 

neurasthenia  as  cause  of,  41 
psychasthenia  as  cause  of,  41 
psychotherapy  in,  362 
Post-hypnotic     suggestion,     definition 

of,    104 
Potentialities,   suggestion   in   develop- 

ing,    116 
Practical     theoretical     considerations, 

87 
Pre-hypnotic   suggestion,   example   of, 

73,  77 
Premature  orgasm  cause  of  functional 

disorders,  262 

Prevalence  of  overeating,  379 
Prevention  of  bleeding  by  suggestion, 

80 
Principle  of  Christian  science,  319 

of  psychotherapy,  112 
Problems  of  psychotherapy,  112 
Progress,  virility  as  factor  in,  285 
Prophylactic  factor,  psychotherapv  as, 

33 

Psychasthenia    as    cause    of   appendi- 
citis, 41 

of  pneumonia,  41 
of  stomach  trouble,  41 
of  tuberculosis,  41 
of  women's  diseases,  41 
example  of  psychotherapy  in,   211 
Paquelin  cautery  in,  226 
Psychic  action,  neurosis  and  psychosis 

basis  of,  44 

duty  of  physician,  118,  120 
force  as  factor  in  therapeutics,  380 
paralysis,  138 
stimulation,  53 
trauma,  definition  of,  288 
Psychical  impotency,  example  of  hyp- 
notism in,  196 

phenomena,  recognition  of,  49 
Psychoanalysis,  definition  of,  288 
dream  analysis  as  factor  in,  311 
in  treatment  of  psychoneurosis,  287 
object  of,  312 
philosophy  of,  310 
psvchotherapy    same    principle    as, 
315 


INDEX. 


405 


I'.-\  choanalysis — cont'd. 
study  of,  316 
technic  of  Freud's,  295 
Psychoanalytic  psychotherapy.  27 
Psycholepsy,    example    of    hypnotism 

in,  168 

Psychologic  factor  in  obstetrics,  247 
Psychological  manifestation  of  sexual 

instinct,  271 

Psychology,    definition    of    physiolog- 
ical, 49 
Freud's,  288 
individual,  22 
philosophy  of  Freud's,  297 
physiological,  in  medical  schools,  65 
Psychomotor  states,  recurrent,  107 
Psy<  honeurasthenia,  example  of  hyp- 
notism in,  198 

Psychoneurology,    example   of   hypno- 
tism in,  176 

Psychoneurosis  as  factor  in  sexual  in- 
stinct, 259 

psychoanalysis  in  treatment  of.  287 
sexual  instinct  as  cause  of,  2.V> 
Ps\  choneurotic     indigestion,     example 

of  hypnotism  in,  175 
paralysis,  example  of  hypnotism  in, 

173 

Psychosis,  neurosis  and,  basis  of  psy- 
chic action,  44 

Psych otherapeutic    diagnosis,    correct- 
ness of,  218 
measures,  21 
value  of  Christian  science,  135 

of  suggestion,  130 
Psychotherapy     an     ally     of    general 

practitioner,  41 
of  surgeon,  41 
applicability  of,  in  medical  practice, 

28 
as  adjunct  to  therapeutics,  137,  140, 

148 

as  assistant  to  nature,  36 
as  controlling  cell  function,  40 
as  curative  agent,  42 
as  educational  measure.  33 
as  employed  by  Christian  scientists, 

24 

by  Emanuelists,  136 
by  osteopaths,  136 
by  Weltmerites,  136 
as  function  of  physician,  59 
as  mental  stimulus,  26 
as  physical  inhibitor,  26 
as  physiological  stimulus,  26 
as  prophylactic  factor,  33 
as  therapeutic  adjunct,  54 

factor.  33 

as  treatment  in  neurosis,  303 
awakening  interest  in.  21 


Psychotherapy — cont'd. 

based  on  scientific  principles,  24 
definition  of,  21,  48,  -~>l 
efficacy   of,   depends   on   demonstra- 
tor, 25 

doubted,  238 
employment  of,  without  knowledge, 

131,  132,  133,  134 
example  of,  in  anorexia,  212 

in  gastritis,  216 

in  grand  mal,  213 

in  insomnia,  223 

in  migraine,  209 

in  neurasthenia,   105,  214,  217 

in  obsessions,  210,  212,  22ti 

in  pain  in  head,  215 

in  paralysis,  215 

in  pneumonia,  141 

in  psychasthenia,  211 

in  sticking  pin  into  skin,  221 

in  utero-ovarian  disease,  211 
field  of,  112 
Freud's  scientific,  290 
function  of,  46 
in  acute  diseases,  140 
in  Bright's  disease,  54 
in  chronic  cases,  55 
in  epilepsy,  213 
in  extreme  illness,  371 
in  medical  colleges,  43 
in  mental  diseases,  27 
in  obstetrics,  247 
in  pneumonia,  362 
in  relation  to  expectant  mother,  243 

to  physical  therapeutics,  21 

to  physiological   therapeutics,   21 
in  sexual  instinct,  265 
in  tinnitus  annum.  94 
in  tuberculosis,  36 
in  uterine  fibroid,  146 
increases  functional  activity,  43 
investigation  of,  28 
knowledge  of,  28 
mind  and  body  in,  37 
monism  in,  44 
neglect  of,  30 

not    to    supplant    certain     medica- 
ments. 42 

of  universal  application,  24 
persons  not  susceptible  to,  22:5 
persons  susceptible  to,  223 
philosophy  of,  50,  84    208,  219,  239 
principles  of,  112 
problems  of,   112 
psychoanalytic.   iT 
rationale  of,  207 
relation   of,   to   general   practice   of 

medicine,  32 

to  general  practice  of  surge), 
requirements  of  application  01 


406 


INDEX. 


Psychotherapy — cont'd. 

same    principle    as    psychoanalysis, 
315 

scientific  basis  of,  44 

special  function  of,  34 

suggestion  as  tool  of,  60 

the  result  of  evolution,  57 

theory  of,  46 

to  supplant  certain  medicaments,  42 

value  of,  218,  227 

work  as  factor  in,  343 
Pulmonary    tuberculosis,    example    of 
hypnotism  in,  203 


R 


Rational  therapeutics,  207 
foundation  of,  207,  218 
Rationale  of  psychotherapy,  207 
Reason  as  a  factor,  119 
Recognition   of  psychical   phenomena, 

49 
Recurrent  mental  states,  107 

psychomotor  states,  107 
Reflex  irritations,  operations  for,  39 
Relation  of  philosophy  to  health,  332 
of  psychotherapy  to  general  practice 

of  medicine,  32 

to  general  practice  of  surgery,  32 
of  religion  to  health,  332 
Relaxation  as  aid  to  health,  351 
Religion  as  factor  in  hysterical  emo- 
tion, 302 

monoideaism  in,  334 
philosophy  of,  333 
suggestion  as  factor  in,  157,  284 
science  as  factor  in,  333 
relation  of,  to  health,  332 
Religious   belief,   circumstances   form, 

338 

emotion  and  sexual  instinct,  123 
as  factor  in  erotic  emotion,  334 
as  factor  in  masturbation,  260 
as  factor  in  sexual  instinct,  259 
as  habit,  342 
deleterious  effect  of,  335 
effect  of,   same  as   excessive  sen- 
suality, 335 

influence  of,  on  child,  384 
training   as   impediment   to   health, 

337 
Repressed    personality    as    factor    in 

neurosis,  293 

sexuality  as  factor  in  neurosis,  293 
Requirements  of  application  of,  326 
Resistance,  theory  of  phagocytic,  95 
Resistive  power,   increase  of,  by  sug- 
gestion, 92 
venereal   diseases  lessen,  256 


Retention  of  urine,  example  of  hypno- 
tism in,  184 

Retroverted  uterus,  example  of  hypno- 
tism in,  178 

Rheumatism,  improper  use  of  sugges- 
tion in,  327 

Roughing  it  as  means  of  health,  347 


Safeguard,  correct  diagnosis  as,  326 
Sciatica,  example  of  hypnotism  in,  188 
Science  as  factor  in  religion,  333 
Scientific  basis  of  psychotherapy,  44 
principles,  psychotherapy  based  on, 

24 

Self-control  as  factor  in  health,  346 
Self-healing  process  of  nature,  neglect 

of,  110 
Self-mastery   as    factor    in   physician, 

390 

in  suggestion,  391 
as  fine  art,  388 
example  of  lack  of,  391 
Self-preservation    instinct,    sexual    in- 
stinct second  to,  341 
Self-reliance  as  factor  in  health,  323 
Self-suggestion,  effect  of,  on  physiog- 
nomy,  110 

requires  confidence,  145 
subconscious  mind  amenable  to,  110 
Sensual  intoxication  as  factor  in  mar- 
riage, 272 
Sensuality,  effect  of  religious  emotion 

same  as  excessive,  335 
Sexual  excesses,  monogamy  as  factor 

in  modifying,  341 
instinct  as  cause  of  psychoneurosis, 

255 

as  factor  in  neurasthenia,  147 
as  factor  in  trauma,  289 
as  incident  in  marriage,  273 
beastiality  in,  274 
education  as  factor  in,  269,  276 
environment  as  factor  in,  269 
ethical  consideration  of,  266 
foundation  of,  262 
guidance  of,  255 
heredity  as  factor  in,  268. 
philosophy  of,  258 
psychological     manifestation     of, 

271 

psychoneurosis  as-4actor  in,  259 
psychotherapy  in,  265  i 
religious  emotion^a«d,  123 
religious  emotion  as  factor  in,  259 
second    to    self-preservation     in- 
stinct, 341 

relation,  monogamy  as  ideal  of,  258 
theories,  Freud's,  293 


INDEX. 


407 


Sidis,  hypnoidization  of,  313 
Sleep,  hypnotism  in,  54 

suggestion  in,  54 
Snake,    example    of    dream    analysis 

about,  312 
Soporific,    example   of   suggestion   as, 

150 

Source  of  membership  of  Christian  sci- 
ence, 337 

Special  function  of  psychotherapy,  34 
Spine,  example  of  suggestion  in  affec- 
tion of,  372 

Spiritual  plane  of  man,  113 
Static  machine  in  suggestion,  227 
Sticking  pin  in  body  by  suggestion,  79, 

81 

into    skin,   example   of   psychother- 
apy in,  221 
Stiff  body,  example  of  suggestion  in, 

144 

arm,  example  of  suggestion  in,  143 
limb,  example  of  suggestion  in,  138 
Stiffening  of  arm  by  suggestion,  79 

of  body  by  suggestion,  80 
Stimulation,  psychic,  53 
Stimulus,  psychotherapy  as  mental,  26 

as  physiological,  26 
'words,  definition  of,  306 

philosophy  of,  306 
Stomach     trouble,      neurasthenia     as 

cause  of,  41 

psychasthenia  as  cause  of,  41 
Study  of  psychoanalysis,  316 
Subconscious,  definition  of,  52 

mind    amenable    to    self-suggestion, 

110 

amenable  to  suggestion,  91 
as  storehouse  of  memory,  103 
definition  of,  90 
function  of,  92 
perceives  by  intuition,  99 
the  seat  of  emotion,  108 
self,  philosophy  of  training,  325 

training,  318 
Suggestion,  abuse  of,  59 
anesthesia  produced  by,  73 
as  adjunct  to  anesthesia,  228 
as  factor,  120 

in  Christian  science,  154 
in  divine  healing,  154 
in  faith  cure,  154 
in  magnetic  healing,  154 
in  mental  development,  388 
in  mental  science,  154 
in  osteopathy,  154 
in  religion,   157,  284 
as  tool  of  psychotherapy,  60 
as  treatment  in  neurosis,  293 
bleeding  prevented  by,  93 
conscious  mind  amenable  to,  91 


Suggestion — cont'd. 
definition  of,  60,  130 

of  hypnotic,  62 

of  post-hypnotic,  104 
dream  analysis  as  factor  in,  312 
effect  of,  in  Christian  science,  62 

morbid,  138 

on  character,  60 
employed  in  theology,  60 
example  of,  as  soporific,  150 

hypnotic,  74,  77,  78 

in  affection  of  spine,  372 

in  circumcision,  240 

in  dentistry,  228 

in  exhaustion,  148 

in  gastroenterocolitis,  369 

in  lacerated  cervix,  241 

in  mental  development,  388 

in  morbid  consciousness,  158 

in  nephritis,  368 

in  neurasthenia,  151 

in  neuritis,  372 

in  parturition,  249 

in  pleuritis,  151 

in  stiff  arm,  143 

in  stiff  body,  144 

in  stiff  limb,  138 

in  surgery,  229 

in  warts,  145 

on  music  band,  98 

pre-hypnotic,  73,  77 

to  hypnotized  subject,  75 

with  clay  pills,  131 

with  lemon,  130 
general  utility  of,  55 
hot  brick  as  factor  in,  366 
hypnotism  as  proof  of  efficacy  of,  69 
ignorance  of  hypnotic,  69 
improper  use  of,  in  diphtheria,  327 

in  gallstones,  328 

in  gastroenterocolitis,  328 

in  mastoiditis,  328 

in  rheumatism,  327 
in  altering  morbid   condition,    104 
in  chloroform  anesthesia,  238",  240 
in  incurable  disease,  373 
in  developing  potentialities,   116 
in  education,  381 
in  fevers,  139 

in  preventing  insanity,  107 
in  sleep,  54 

in  surgical  anesthesia,  235 
in  syphiology,  139 
increase  of  resistive  power  b\ 
infection  prevented  by,  92 
influence  of,  on  child,  382 
method  of  employing,  72 
not  used  for  amusement,  224 
philosophy  of,  83 

of  hypnotic,  219 


408 


INDEX. 


Suggestion — cont'd. 
personality  as  factor  in,  70 
prevention  of  bleeding  by,  80 
psychotherapeutic  value  of,  130 
self-mastery  as  factor  in,  391 
static  machine  in,  227 
sticking  pin  in  body  by,  79,  81 
stiffening  of  arm  by,  79 

of  body  by,  80 
stimulates  bodily  function,  331 

mental  function,  331 
subconscious  mind  amenable  to,  91 
technic  of,  in  parturition,  250 
therapeutic  effect  of,  109 
therapeutics    in    conjunction    with, 

253 
Suggestive  therapeutics,  definition  of, 

110 
Supraorbital    neuralgia,    example    of 

hypnotism  in,  200 
Suprapubic     cystotomy,     example     of 

hypnotism  in,  194 
Surgeon,  psychotherapy  an  ally  of  the, 

41 

Surgery,  example  of  suggestion  in,  229 
indication  for,  137 
relation    of   psychotherapy   to  gen- 
eral practice  of,  32 
Surgical  anesthesia,  suggestipn  in,  235 

with  ether  and  suggestion,  237 
Symptoms  mistaken  for  epilepsy,  213 

for  hysteria,  213 
Syphiology,  suggestion  in,  139 


Technic    of    Freud's     psychoanalysis, 

295 

of  suggestion  in  parturition,  250 
Telepathy,  example  of,  100 

theory  of,  99 

Theism,  anthropomorphic,  125 
Theology,  dogmatism  of,  126 
suggestion  employed  in,  60 
Theoretical    considerations,    practical, 

87 
Theory  of  insanity,  107 

of  phagocytic  resistance,  95 
of  psychotherapy,  46 
of  telepathy,  99 
of  thought  transference,  99 
Therapeutic     adjunct,     psychotherapy 

as,  54 

application  of  hypnotism,  162 
effect  of  suggestion,   109 
factor,  optimism  as,  97 
physician  as,  95,  102 
psychotherapy  as,  33 
power,  moral  stamina  as,  375 


Therapeutics,   co-operation   of  patient 

as  factor  in,  345 
definition  of  suggestive,  110 
environment  in,  364 
foundation  of  rational,  207,  218 
in  conjunction  with  suggestion,  253 
nonpharmaceutic,  135 
personality  of  physician  as   factor 

in,  352 

philosophy   of,   207 
psychic  force  as  factor  in,  380 
psychotherapy  as   adjunct   to,    137, 

140,   148 

in  relation  to  physical,  21 
in  relation  to  physiological,  21 
rational,  207 
Thought    as    factor    in    physiological 

alteration,  111 
transference,  example  of,  100 

theory  of,  99 

Tinnitus  aurium,  psychotherapy  in,  94 
Tobacco,  use  of,  as  habit,  342 
Training  subconscious  self,  318* 
Trauma,  definition  of  psychic,  288 
sexual  instinct  as  factor  in,  289 
Treatment,  hypnotic,  166 

patient  not  to  suggest  kind  of,  223 
Tuberculosis,    example    of    hypnotism 

in  pulmonary,  203 
neurasthenia  as  cause  of,  41 
psychasthenia  as  cause  of,  41 
psychotherapy  in,  36 
patients,  optimism  of,  109 


r 


Urethritis,  example  of  hypnotism  in, 
182 

Urine,   example  of  hypnotism  in   re- 
tention of,  184 

Use  of  tobacco  as  habit,  342 
of  whisky  as  habit,  342 

Uterine  fibroid,  psychotherapy  in,  146 

Utero-ovariari     disease,     example     of 
psychotherapy  in,  211 


Value  of  psychotherapy,  218,  227 

in  epilepsy,  213 
Venereal      diseases      lessen      resistive 

power,  256 

Virility  as  factor  in  progress,  285 
Vis  medicatrix  naturae  in  disease,  40 
Vomiting,   example   of   hypnotism   in, 

174 

hypnotism  in,  246 
of    pregnancy,    example    of    hypno- 
tism in,  199 


INDEX. 


409 


w 


Waking  a  hypnotized  subject,  81 
Warts,  example  of  suggestion  in,  145 
Water  as  functional  stimulant,  346 
Weltrnerites,     psychotherapy    as    em- 
ployed by,'  136 
Whisky,  use  of,  as  habit,  342 


Will  as  factor,  119 
Woman,  man's  ideal  of,  275 
Woman's  ideal  of  man,  275 
Women's    diseases,    neurasthenia    as 

cause  of,  41 

psychasthenia  as  cause  of,  41 
Work  as  factor  in  psychotherapy,  343 
Worry  as  factor  in  morbidity,  344 


10$  ANGEL 


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his  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


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